Degrees of Succession
by RadioRegicide
Summary: Refused by the Digital World, denied by the government and forgotten by history. Five years on and divided they stand, strangers once more before the oncoming storm because life goes on and they've all grown up without a purpose. The mantel is passed and the Tamers find themselves faced with the responsibilities of their forerunners: to defeat the one enemy they never could.
1. The Shape I'm In

**Obligatory**** disclaimer: I don't own _Digimon_, durr.**

_Digimon_ is a franchise I grew up with and despite having never written for it prior to this I hope to do this franchise the justice it deserves; all I ask is that you settle down and enjoy, for the road ahead is a long one and there is much to be done.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Degrees of <strong>_**_Succession_**

* * *

><p><strong>I<strong>

* * *

><p><em>You don't know the shape I'm in<em>  
><em>This isn't the real me<em>  
><em>Know the shape I'm in<em>  
><em>Living half asleep<em>  
><em>Just live with the pain<em>  
><em>I've got a job to do<em>  
><em>I'd never make it without you<em>

_The Shape I'm In _- I Am The Avalanche

* * *

><p><strong>July Seventeenth<strong>**  
><strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Takato Matsuki<strong>

* * *

><p>The cries of car horns sang out together, their rackety symphony the same awful tune as every other morning whilst people slowly went insane waiting for someone to move amidst the rush-hour traffic. It was still far too early and everyone was running low on patience, they were so wrapped up in their own lives as they attempted to navigate the stagnating chaos that one lone teenager sprinting down the street in a mad dash hardly seemed all that special to anyone who bothered to spare him a glance.<p>

As he tore down the street like a wanted man in a futile attempt to make it to school on time, Takato Matsuki couldn't help but start to panic as he weaved his way between the jostling crowd with well practised ease; _Miss Asaji is going to dump me in detention for the rest of the week! _The thought spurred him on, twisting and turning to avoid colliding with the endless mass of people with his shoulder bag rocking back and forth against his lower back as he pushed himself to go faster still - he really didn't need _another_ detention for tardiness.

A few people cried out as he nearly crashed into them, clearly annoyed; "Shomry!" Takato tried shouting over his shoulder, but his apology was muffled by his breakfast, a pastry he'd pinched on his way out of the bakery's back-door, but the man who he had bounced off of just looked at him in disapproval before shaking his mop of black hair in disbelief. Trying his best to to wave an apology instead the young man skidded around another corner, barely staying upright, wincing as the stitch in his side made itself known.

"Awwww… _nuts_!" Takato groaned to himself, arms flailing in the air as he caught his balance, taking off again with renewed vigour. Though in his rush he failed to catch a few of the questioning looks he got, forgetting he must have looked a little odd talking to himself in broad daylight as he weaved his way down the street.

The dark, mandatory uniform jacket that all the boys had to wear wasn't exactly making things any easier on him; helping him to work up a sweat under the glare of the summer sun. Doing his best the runaway student undid the first few buttons hoping it would let him cool off a little, knowing his luck it wouldn't help much. Under his black jacket was the standard, long-sleeved, button-up shirt, still half open and creased in his rush to get out the door with a baggy blue t-shirt whilst the black slacks he had to wear looked a complete mess (seeing as Takato was at that awkward point were everything was either too short or too long in the leg and nothing seemed to fit him properly), the ends a shredded mess of loose thread and fabric. His black, red and white high-top converse trainers hammering off the pavement.

_This has to be a new record for me, _Takato thought as he cruised around another corner he couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of relief when he spotted Shinjuku Central High School just up the street, located on the other side of the road. _Almost there__… _he though with relief, panting as he ran a hand through his mop of brown hair, which was (as per usual) a complete mess; half a dozen strands falling down over the chequered white-and-black head band he wore to hang in front of his ruby eyes with the rest flying out in every possible directions.

The grounds of Shinjuku Central High School blurred past him when he finally made it past the school gate just before the janitor could lock it, jumping up a set of small steps before finding another in his path. If he had had time, he might have stopped to admire the grounds, not to mention the cherry blossom trees stationed near the picnic benches on the grass made for a great places to take shelter from the sun. Instead he shouted a thanks back to the janitor, who in turn wished him luck with Miss Asaji as he dashed up the last set of steps to the main entrance, taking the white stone steps three at a time before wrenching the front doors open and skidding across the wooden floor of the entrance hall.

His trainers squeaked horribly against the freshly polished floor and Takato almost lost his balance in surprise; the floor must've just been waxed. Thankfully he was able to avoid falling on his face, he'd done it before and had no desire for a repeat performance and the exhausted eleventh grader ground to a halt right in front of his locker with surprising accuracy. Tearing it open as soon as he entered the rushed combination, swapping out the books he would need before lunch for the ones he wouldn't. It paid to have a locker in line with the door, he thought, taking a moment to catch his breath before wolfing down the last of his pastry in a manner that would make Guilmon proud_._

Thanking the universe for cutting him a break, he slipped off his trainers and placed them in his locker before grabbing his _uwabaki _and slamming his locker shut. Jumping on the spot for a moment, he tried to slip on the soft white slippers one at a time before eventually taking off in the direction of the stairs at the end of the corridor, having succeeded in getting the shoes on without landing on his face.

Takato made the stairs in good time seeing as his classroom was on the second floor before flying down the last stretch to the other end of the corridor, where room two-three awaited him. But to his great dismay someone stood outside waiting for him. Throwing on the breaks as fast he could, he was lucky to not crash straight into the displeased form of Miss Nami Asaji. Though he had thought her gone forever when he left elementary and escaped into middle school, she had returned with a frightening vengeance upon his entry into high school.

"Why, _good morning_, Takato," Miss Asaji said in that false calm voice she always used when annoyed and Takato forced a chuckle, rubbing at the back of his like a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. "Please do tell; what was it this time?"

Takato did make to answer, opening his mouth, but for once his brain was on point and he caught himself - thinking better off it before he could make the hole he stood in any deeper. In the end he settled for looking at an interesting spot on the floor, resigning himself to whatever fate Miss Asaji had for him. _Detention_, he knew it was coming, and on the week before summer vacation, too. _My luck blows..._

"I think you can wait out here while I try to decided what to do with you," again Takato nodded, shoulders slumping, he really should've known. Sighing, he positioned himself against the wall by the door, so that Miss Asaji would still be able to see him from inside of the classroom and prepared for the long stand that was ahead of him.

_Well,_ Takato thought, sourly, _today is off to a _great_ start..._

* * *

><p>Mundane wasn't the right word, Takato told himself, tapping the end of his pen against his desk. Boring didn't seem like the right word either he decided as he listened to Mr Morimoto, an elderly man who had a strained, croaking voice that went well with his rubbery skin and watery eyes, all of which made him look like a mutated toad, drone on and on for what seemed like forever.<p>

He could hear the dim tick-tick-tock of the clock hands echoing from the front of the class as they dragged themselves around the clock face as Takato's mind did what it did best - wander. It was something he'd noticed over the years: the last fifteen minutes before the end of the day always dragged on, taunting him, knowing well and good all he wanted was for class to end. He supposed that Mr Morimoto being one of those teachers who could open his mouth and find his entire class asleep in front of him wasn't helping the situation.

Takato just resigned himself to his fate, chin resting in the palm of one hand with his head lolling off to the side, eyelids dipping and a yawn stuck in the back of his throat. He'd lost interest in the lesson as soon as it began; instead he'd spent his time staring out the window by his desk.

The young brunette was vaguely aware that Mr Morimoto was drawling on about a report he wanted them to write over the summer describing in English an important event in their life and how it had changed them as a person with the stipulation they make the chosen instance sound as interesting as possible. So far Takato had worked his way down a laundry-list of words that summed up his life whilst trying to conjure an event he could write about. Nothing he could think of really seemed to fit the criteria. Sure, as the son of bakers he met all sorts of people when he helped his parents out and working in the bakery was fun, but it was hardly life altering.

The only thing Takato could think of that had ever happened to him which was even remotely interesting, that had helped him to grow as a person, was something he was forbidden to talk about by the government as it was classified top secret. His time as a Digimon Tamer was unknown to anyone but those who had lived it with him during those precious few months that had changed him forever.

It was now rather depressing when he looked back on it all.

Nobody but a lucky few knew the truths of the ups and downs, struggles and sacrifices that he and his friends had made in order to protect one another, the city and Digital World from those that had sought to do them harm.

The reward they'd gotten for all the hard work they'd put in? They'd lost their Digimon back to the Digital World after which they'd all been given a pat on the back and a non-disclosure agreement shoved into their hands: the government's rather unsubtle way of telling them to keep their mouths shut. In the end the government had spun tall tales for the population at large in an attempt to explain everything that had taken place. The existence of Digimon had been denied and the truth swept under the rug and people had accepted it without even batting an eye; the world just wasn't ready for Digimon according to the stiffs in suits.

_Guilmon…_ Takato thought with a smile tugging at his lips, memories of his Digimon partner happily stuffing his maw with mountains of bread coming to mind. It'd be five years on November ninth since he last saw the childish red dinosaur, five years since he had been a careless twelve year old boy who was living out his dream. Five years since he'd made a promise he now knew was impossible to keep.

He and Guilmon would never play together again though not for a lack of trying. No sooner had Shinjuku pulled itself back together had Hypnos and the Monster Makers gotten to work trying to find a way to bring the Digimon back after Takato had stumbled across the portal in Guilmon's old shed and though it had only lasted a handful of hours it had given them all hope.

Hope that had quickly flickered and died as reality came crashing down on top of them.

According to tests and assessments done by Hypnos on orders from the cabinet, the damage done to the barriers between worlds had somehow been repaired in the aftermath of the D-Reaper's attack and the higher ups in the government had decided that was how they would stay. Enough of the cabinet had come to believe that the problem with the Digimon and D-Reaper had been caused by Hypnos in the first place, or at least allowed to come to pass because of the damage done to the barriers between worlds by Hypnos. They were shut down before they could do it a second time.

_Supposedly_, anyway. The Hypnos Foundation was terminated just months after the defeat of the D-Reaper and the Monster Makers once again all went their separate ways.

Prevention was better than cure, or so said the stuffy government officials until they were blue in the face when Yamaki, the former head of Hypnos had called the Tamers in to explain the situation to them personally. And, just like that, Hypnos was gone and with it went their last chance the of getting their Digimon back after Takato's portal ended up a bust.

It hadn't taken long at all after the news for the Tamers themselves to fall apart. It hadn't really occurred to Takato that without the Digimon to keep them together that the group would fracture until it happened right in front of him. Without the Digimon they'd lost the very thing that had given them purpose and without their partners they themselves were lost and confused and in an attempt to find their way again they'd all stumbled off in different directions from each other.

They'd all slowly grown apart as they proceed to grow up and move on with their lives.

His mother had said it was only natural, that was just how life went sometimes, that he honestly couldn't expect them all to stay friends forever. But he'd refused to accept that: people didn't go through what he and the other Tamers had only to drift apart over time. They couldn't, could they...? In the end he had waged a losing battle against life itself; there were just some things he couldn't stop no matter hard he tried. People moved on and changed, that was just an inevitable fact.

That was how the real world worked.

Jenrya's entire family had moved to Kyoto after his father had gotten a job there shortly after Hypnos' termination; despite strenuous debate and protest from the rest of the Wong family. Jen's father just wouldn't hear any of it, claiming that what he was being asked to be apart of in Kyoto was of the utmost importance. The pair of them had originally made an effort to stay in touch via email but it hadn't lasted very long, Takato wasn't sure when it happened, but after a while both he and Jen had just stopped talking; he didn't know if his old friend was even still living in Kyoto.

To the surprise of no one Ryo Akiyama disappeared off of the face of the earth after the D-Reaper had been defeated. Whilst Takato had never really known him to begin with, he still thought of the older Tamer as a friend and his absence had been felt throughout the group even if he had only been with them briefly. Takato still had hope that wherever Ryo was the Legendary Tamer was well.

Juri was an interesting case; despite her wishes to stay with what remained of the Tamers and her other friends, on request from her father, Juri had gone to a different middle school from everyone else, and eventually a different high school so as to be closer to home. Takato still kept in touch with her, but admittedly they weren't nearly as close as they had been even if they still saw one another on the odd occasion she was passing through Shinjuku and stopped by his family's bakery.

The one that hit the hardest was how things had ended with Rika. Or rather how they had blown up. Somewhere along the line during their adventures they'd become close and over time she'd become his best friend. The copper haired girl was the one he'd counted on above all others, trusted without question, the one who would have his back no matter what happened. Or so he'd thought until he'd screwed up royally.

But despite all the friends he'd lost over the years, both real and digital, he wasn't alone.

He still had Kazu and Kenta, the pair of them having ridden out the years with him; how they'd managed it Takato would never understand.

Even now Kazu was sitting in front of him, mindlessly doodling in his textbook so as to pass the time. If someone had told his twelve year old self that one day Kazu would become his best friend he would've said they were crazy. Kenta had always been the one he had preferred to hang out with when they were younger but over the years the bespectacled boy had started to apply himself and break away from Kazu's shrinking influence which had resulted in some rather nasty fights between the pair and Takato had somehow become the middle man during it all.

When Takato found himself hanging out with just Kazu he was surprised to find out that the other boy could be rather laid back and generally fun to be around when he wasn't acting the fool in attempt to impress everyone else with his antics. They had found things besides Kenta and Digimon to bond over and things had snowballed from there. The pair of them had become all but inseparable in and out of school.

Meanwhile Takato wondered if Kenta now felt how he had once upon a time, an outsider among his own supposed friends. The thought had once made him feel guilty that he might be alienating the other boy, but Kenta had found himself other friends to spend time with at school and only ever wanted to hang out with Takato when he knew Kazu wouldn't be around.

A part of him had grown to be content with things as they were but Takato couldn't help but hope for more. He wanted _all_ his old friends back again, he wanted Guilmon to come back and for them to have new adventures as Tamer and Partner – to laugh and play together again like the old days. He wanted to matter, to feel that what he did meant something. That his contribution was important – that he'd _lived _and not just existed.

He didn't want to be _average_. He didn't want to keep carrying his regrets around with him everywhere he went.

_Why am I thinking about this…? _It was all in the past, nothing could change what had happened and to mope over what was and could've been was simply a waste of time, he knew that. Still, sometimes he just couldn't help himself. His mind always had a nasty habit of wondering. It was all because of that stupid assignment for Morimoto,

Sighing, Takato turned his ruby eyes away from the board were Morimoto was writing something in his shaky scrawl to chance another glance out of the window.

The reflection that stared back at him was that of a young man with still maturing features and mossy brown hair that was spiky and unkempt, tickling at the at the base of his neck. His trademark yellow and blue goggles where long gone and he still thought he didn't look right without them. He wasn't a Tamer any more so he had no right to wear the goggles, having buried them in a box at home alongside his old Digimon cards and D-arc; which had been dead ever since the portal in Guilmon's shed had vanished. He'd tried to fill the void his goggles had left with a chequered headband but it wasn't the same. Not even close.

But just as that thought crossed his mind, he almost went flailing out of his seat as the piercing shriek of the school bell rang throughout the school. The noise was met with a silent chorus of cheers as almost every student in Takato's class moved as one, a single purpose uniting them as they all scrambled of their bags – getting home or heading to whatever after school activity they had.

Sighing in relief, Takato copied everyone else and grabbed his bag off the floor whilst hurriedly stuffing his books into it. Sweet freedom at long last, pity he would be back again tomorrow - at least summer vacation was only days away. Shaking his head the former Tamer grabbed his jacket off the back of his chair, haphazardly pulled it on over his shirt. Lifting the strap of his bag over his head, he let it drop onto his shoulder and stuffing his hands into the pockets of his pants he headed for the door were Hirokazu Shiota waited for him.

"Today is good, y'know?" Kazu joked as he leaned against the wall by the door. The other teen was tall, the tallest in their class in fact with a head of mahogany hair he kept stuffed under a plain white beanie, dark eyes twinkling. He too was otherwise dressed in the mandatory boy's school uniform, though his school jacket was ruffled, and the collar of his white shirt upturned and the top few buttons left undone, partially showing off the logo on the t-shirt he wore bellow.

"Sorry," Takato replied, rubbing at the back of his neck with a slight chuckle to which Kazu rolled his eyes.

"So what's the plan? Your practice got cancelled, right?" Kazu asked and Takato shrugged, he suspected his parents might want his help in bakery as the basketball team's practice had been cancelled when coach Takashi called in sick that morning. Admittedly whilst he wasn't the greatest basketball player the school had ever seen he was still good enough to make the team.

Kazu on the other hand ran as a member of the track team – something he'd opted to join because he thought just having to run wasn't all that a hard of a task for a sports club - given the schools healthy living policy required them to join in some sort of sports or after school club. It turned out to Kazu's dismay that he actually had to put in much more work in than he'd expected, something he never failed to complain about given his lazy disposition.

"Probably spend some time working in the bakery," Takato didn't mind the idea of having to go home and help out in the bakery, he'd been looking forward to practice but as long as his mother didn't follow up on her threat to make him clean his room he didn't mind. The red-eyed boy would do anything his mother wanted, anything but clean his room. He'd be there for days trying to organise the mess. Even Morimoto's assignment was a more appealing alternative. "You?"

"Work," Kazu grumbled, there was no pleasing him. If he wasn't complaining about how exhausting track was then it was how boring work was.

"Dude you work at the arcade, don't sound so excited," Takato joked, recalling a time when Kazu had been thrilled at the idea of getting a chance to work at the large arcade at Shinjuku's largest shopping centre. It seemed as though the reality hadn't lived up to his friend's expectations.

"Yeah, wandering around the arcade making sure no one is misbehaving and never actually getting to play anything, real fun." So began another one of Kazu's rants about never getting to do the fun stuff, that he only ever got stuck doing the boring tasks that took way more effort than they were worth. With practised ease, Takato just nodded in time, tuning the beanie wearing teen out having heard it all a hundred time before.

Okay, so he wouldn't change his friend for the world, Takato thought as he and Kazu reached the school's front doors but sometimes he wished he came with a mute button. Shaking his head, the former Tamers parted ways at the gates to the school when they finally reached them, heading in opposite directions, giving each a half-hearted good-bye and promise to talk later.

With his sights set on home, Takato headed off, cursing his lack of lack of a jacket as sudden winds came from nowhere, almost knocking him off balance as the sky was overrun by a heard of grey clouds. Just another reason to wish practice hadn't been cancelled, he thought as he ran head first into the oncoming wind in hopes of getting home before the rain fell from above.

* * *

><p>His luck sucked, Takato decided as he dropped into the old wheelie chair in the middle of his room, slumping down as he spun from side-to-side. He'd run home, making good time and avoiding the rain, only for the clouds to disperse as he reached his families bakery. Of course his mother had decided that as he no longer had practice there was nothing to stop him from finally cleaning his room seeing as the bakery was almost abandoned.<p>

Running a hand through his hair, he chanced a glance over his shoulder out of his bedroom window; the sun had returned in full force, having scared away the clouds though the wind was still going strong. Somewhere out there someone was laughing at him, he knew it. Giving into the inevitable he decided he might as well just get it over with. _The sooner you start, the sooner you'll finish, _Takato thought to himself with a sigh, recalling his father's favourite saying when it came to getting him to do something he _really _didn't want to do.

Pushing off of the armrests of his chair he figured he might as well change out of his uniform before starting. Pulling off his shirt and throwing it back onto his wheelie chair as headed for his closet in hopes of finding something clean. He got half way through pulling on his worn, baggy black jeans, a fresh pale blue t-shirt still only half way on when an ear splitting screech that cut the silence so suddenly Takato went flailing to the floor in a mad attempt to cover his ears, landing with loud _thud _and a long drawn out groan.

"Nuts," Takato cursed in a murmur, his head finally popping out of his t-shirt as the screech trailed off into a dull buzzing noise. Rolling onto his side before quickly clambering to his feet, hoisting his jeans back up and securing them around his waist with his belt before dusting himself off. "The heck was that anyway?" he wondered aloud, rubbing at the back of his where it kissed the floor.

"Takato, I sent you up there to clean your room, not make a bigger mess," his mother's voice rang out from down in the bakery, and he instinctively cringed as the mental image of his mother reprimanding him appeared in his head. Some things never changed and even at seventeen, Takato knew that that the image of his mother reprimanding him would forever haunt him when he got into trouble.

"Sorry, mom," Takato called back, "I just dropped something I was moving, I swear I'm cleaning!" he decided to take her silence as her acceptance of his answer, so he set about trying to find the source of the noise.

Grabbing his favourite sleeveless white hoodie, the zip-up one with the slight collar, of the end of his bed, he knelt down in front of his desk, trying figure out which draw the buzzing was coming from. Unsurprisingly, it turned out to be the bottom one and the brunette pulled it open without much thought, only to find an old lunch box, some used note pads and a bunch of damaged deck boxes alongside a _lot_ of dust. He blinked, realising the buzzing was coming from inside the old launch box - but there wasn't anything in there except old Digimon cards and his goggles.

Apart form his _D-Arc_.

Snatching the box up Takato wasted no time in emptying the contents all over his cluttered bedroom floor. It was stupid, he knew, but he couldn't help the excitement from building inside of him as soon as he worked out what the source of the noise from earlier was. He almost punched the air when he saw he was right; sitting on a pile of his old Digimon cards and goggles was his D-Arc, screen full of static and more active than it had been in years.

_But why now...? Why is it suddenly working after so long? _Unless... Guilmon was coming back.

He couldn't think of any other reason why it would just start working again after so many years of inactivity. _Guilmon...! _Reaching out, he tried to pick his D-Arc up, but all he got for his trouble was a nasty shock, reeling back he collided with his desk, the draw handles digging into his back as things that had been teetering on the edge went tumbling to the floor with a crash.

"I really gotta stop doing that..." Takato groaned, trying his nurse his sore back.

"_Takato_!"

"Sorry, mom," Kazu was right, his mother did have super hearing, "I tripped!" Hoping the answer would satisfy her, Takato looked back towards his D-Arc, engulfed in white light and beeping wildly. "I hope it's supposed to be doing that," Takato murmured, the last thing he needed was for it to break right after it started working again. Kneeling over the device which seemed to be changing shape before his very eyes he remembered how his card reader had once done the exact same thing all those years ago.

In the end the entire transformation had taken all of a few seconds and where Takato's D-Arc had once been sat the most underwhelming thing he'd ever seen.

His Digivice had become some strange hybrid between a wrist watch and a small touch phone: a white rectangle with a large screen, with the left side expanded outwards into a curved shape so there was room for a few buttons that were laid out akin to his old D-Arc with a few extras and an adjustable red Velcro strap so he could wear it on his wrist. Tentatively, he picked it up so he could have a closer look. The device still had a thin slot of slashing cards, though it was on the front for some reason and instead the flat side had a slot of a stylus and what looked liked ports for inserting some kind of external chip or plug-in. The underside had the stylised D symbol that the Blue Cards used to have.

"Who designed this thing?" Takato asked no one, but quickly flipped the thing right way up when the Digivice beeped again, the words: _Upgrade Complete_ on the screen. Then with another beep, the thing began projecting a image much like his D-Arc used to do, showing the one thing he'd hoped more than anything to see. A profile on Guilmon, and underneath the red saurian's image was another message that read: _Digimon Partner. __Status: re-materialization imminent_.

The update quickly flickered out of existence before the compass feature from the D-arc came to life in its place, though it was far more advance than Takato remembered. There was a detailed map of Tokyo in its entirety and his location was marked with a flashing dot, with a blue arrow above pointing in the direction he needed go and he could use buttons on the left side to zoom in and out and make the map as large as he wanted, even making it to scale.

_This is it, _he thought, brushing aside some of the cards that lay atop his goggles so he could pick them up. _Guilmon's finally coming back... _he looked back and forth between the dusty old goggles in his hand and his bedroom door.

What was he supposed to do in this situation?

How would his parents respond? He knew his parents would never refuse him keeping Guilmon but what about his life as a Tamer? Would they approve, and let him continue were he'd left of? No, of course not. The would never allow it despite knowing it was something he had to do.

It was a conversation they'd all had not long after the D-Reaper's defeat. Although his father had championed his decision to go to the Digital World, saying Takato was growing up and needed to make his own choices, both he and his mother had agreed that the D-Reaper was the end of it. They had stated that if Guilmon ever returned he was more than welcome in their home but they had explicitly forbidden him from resuming his life as a Tamer, not wanting to see their son risk his life again. He'd done his part, it was time for someone else to take over the good fight his father had said with foreign finality.

Takato decided there was only one path he could take. Hurriedly pulling on his new Digivice, he strapped it around his left wrist after taking off his watch before grabbing one of the old deck boxes from his desk drawer. Picking up an assortment of random cards and stuffing them into an old deck box that he attached to his belt. Pulling his hoodie on, he pushed the sleeves of t-shirt up to his elbow and headed for his bedroom window.

It took him a moment but he stopped, realising something was still missing. Looking back over his shoulder, he spotted his old goggles, which in his rush he'd placed on his desk. Without even thinking twice about it, he snatched them off the desk and put them back on over his headband: back where they belonged. He hadn't felt so complete in a long time and he was ready for anything either world could throw at him.

For once he was in luck, his father's delivery van was parked just bellow his window. His parents would most likely murder him for this later, or rather his mother would, but he could worry about that when the time came. Grabbing his phone off of his desk and slipping it into his back pocket he slipped out of his window and onto the ledge before shutting the window behind him, hoping no one saw him.

_This is monumentally stupid, y'know that right?_ A voice in the back of his mind said, then again even Takato didn't need a voice in his head to tell him how stupid this was but he was desperate, and desperate people did do stupid things, that much was proven fact when it came to the human race.

Taking a deep breath, he stepped off the ledge and dropped down onto the roof of his father's delivery van.

It wasn't a large fall by any stretch of imagination but boy-how did it make one hell of a bang when he landed. Wincing, he rolled off of the roof as quickly as he could, looking back and forth madly to try and see if anyone had spotted him in his escape. No one had. Sighing in relief, Takato almost collapsed against the side of the van facing away from the bakery, heart in his throat. His mother was defiantly going to murder him. Still, he hadn't been caught yet, which was strange in and of itself. _My luck is never this good, what's going?_

"And just where do you think you're going, huh?" Why'd he ask again?

Leaning out around the open doors at the back of the van was a young woman in her early-to-mid twenties. Her usually wavy caramel hair was pulled up into a messy bun at the back of her head, honey eyes glittered with mischief as she grinned at him, clearly giddy about the fact that Takato was up to something he clearly shouldn't be. Only half a head shorter than Takato she was actually much taller than the average woman her age and though she was covered in dough and dressed in a baggy work sweater and old jeans that weren't faltering in the least she he was still, admittedly, very beautiful young woman.

Bubbly and full of good will, Takato wouldn't deny the young woman was a lot of fun under normal circumstances, when she wasn't teasing him relentlessly. She was best friends with his eldest cousin and he suspected perhaps a little more than friends with his basketball coach, if how outrageously they flirted whenever he stopped by the bakery to visit her was anything to go by. Originally his father had only agreed to let her help out in the bakery as work experience because his cousin had such wonderful things to say about her friend (the begging might have helped) and she needed a way to put herself through culinary school. Having not long graduated she was still at the bakery for the time being, until a better opportunity arose. Though, when the time finally did come for her to move on, he wasn't sure his parents would be willing to let her go easily.

"Eh, hey!" Takato tried weakly, adding a wave and putting on his best 'I'm totally innocent' smile.

"Of all people, Takato, I would've _never_ expected this from you," she was playing with him, but still he couldn't help but panic, every moment he stood talking to her was another that his mother could come outside to check on them and catch him. It must've been all over his face because his parent's assistant stepped out fully from behind the van, folding her arms over her chest. "Takato, just what _are_ you doing?"

"Listen, please, I need to go," Takato said, begging with her, "I know this must look bad, but this is important, I swear. As soon as I finish doing what I need to do I'll come straight back and accept whatever punishment my parents have for me. Please, I _need_ to do this."

For one long minute there was only silence between them as they stared back at one another, his father's apprentice giving him a long, appraising look as she tried to measure the sincerity of his words. But in the end, she gave a small nod after taking a long glance at the new Digivice around Takato's left wrist, a flash of recognition flashing across her face.

"I'll give you five minutes, then I'll tip of you mother to the fact you're gone," she agreed, turning away before adding over her shoulder; "Hope it goes well, Takato." She smiled at him, offering him a victory-V as a show of support.

"Thanks, I owe you one, Mimi!" Takato called, pushing off the van and dashing off down the street in the direction the compass was pointing him, and in the distance he could hear his father's apprentice shout back: "Damn right you do!" All he could do was smile as he tore around the corner at the end of the street.

_I'm coming Guilmon..._

* * *

><p><em>Of all places... <em>Takato thought as he ran through Shinjuku Central Park, turning up another foot path and running like his life depended on it. He wasn't paying much attention to the map as he'd already worked out where Guilmon was going to Biomerge on his own as seeing which way the arrow was leading him.

After running for what felt like forever, he skidded to a halt, a large grin on his face. He couldn't help but find it funny that of all the places in the world for Guilmon to return it would be the old children's play park where Takato had first found the Blue Card that had started it all. The place hadn't changed at all, well, everything was a little on the used side and there was the odd bit of graffiti on the old dinosaur, the clock now broken but otherwise nothing had changed.

A swift crack made Takato look up, the dark grey clouds had returned in force to dwell over head and his phone was going wild in his back pocket - his mother most likely. The loud rumble of thunder split the air before a flash of lightning followed and the goggle-head had to throw his arms up in front of his face as pink mist exploded out from the dinosaur clock. Grateful he remembered everything from his time as a Tamer so thoroughly, he pulled his goggles down over his eyes as the mist swam out in every direction and carried on into the centre of the old park.

This was it.

It took a minute or two but Takato was finally able to spot something red in the mist as things cleared up a little. The old dinosaur clock had been _melted_, a smoking waste left in its place as Takato heard something padding around nearby as his Digivice gave another beep. Looking down to see what was going on, the Tamer found that Guilmon's profile was once again being projected though under it was a loading bar, and the image of the old Guilmon shattered into dozens of tiny pixels, replaced by two words: updating profile.

Takato never had much time to question the whole as a deep growl echoed out of the mist and he spun around to find a few feet in front of him was Guilmon. Except it wasn't Guilmon, at least not the one he remembered.

This new Guilmon was somehow slimier than the old one, lithe and built for speed rather than bulky and muscular like originally designed, taller too (Takato guessed the saurian would match him in height it he stood upright properly). His claws also seemed less paw-like and more like those of an actual velociraptor, predators claws, his feet had also changed to match, even gaining the signature curve claw toe. His body marking had also been altered, and had become more pronounced like his battle-like ears. But out of all the changes that shocked Takato, it was Guilmon's golden eyes, cold and bestial, narrowed in anger: feral.

"Guilmon, it's me; it's _Takato_." Gulping, the goggle-headed Tamer peddled backwards when Guilmon snarled at him, not hint of recognition present, flames frothing at the mouth. _Awww... nuts! Not this again! _He knew what was about to happen all to well.

"Pyro Sphere!"

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** I hadn't planned for this chapter to be a weird parallel of the first episode of _Tamers_, that's just what it developed into as I worked on it and going forward I thought it worked so why not? Homages and mythology gags ho!

Things are more jaded than is the norm as I wanted to approach the return of the Digimon from a different angle. Something I loved about _Tamers_ was how it took the core trio time to come together as a team and I've admittedly hit the reset button which will result in a similar period learning to work together again through the first few chapters as the Tamers adjust to the changes they've all gone through over the years whilst working through lots of shiny new baggage.

As far as names go, I'll be using what I like best across the board; some Digimon and human characters will use their Japanese names whilst others will use their English and in a few cases I've used both: one example is I've gone with Jenrya Wong for Henry, simply because Jenrya sounds better given he's half Chinese but I like Wong better than Lee.

Finally I have altered/updated the design of a few Digimon. Some will get in story explanations whilst others won't, I hope this isn't a big issue seeing as Digimon have received canonical visual updates over the years but primarily it's because I want to give the Digimon a feeling of development and individuality, that every Digimon can develop unique quirks in their appearance and letting them grow with the Tamers in more ways.

Now that the needlessly long author note is done I say: until next chapter, don't forget to be awesome, people. Peace out.


	2. Back In Black

_**Degrees of Succession**_

* * *

><p><strong>II<strong>

* * *

><p><em>Yes I am<br>Let loose from the noose  
>That's kept me hanging about<br>I keep looking at the sky cause it's gettin' me high  
>Forget the hearse cause I'll never die<br>I got nine lives cat's eyes  
>Using every one of them and runnin' wild<br>Cause I'm back_

_Back In Black - _AC/DC

* * *

><p><strong>July Seventeenth<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Takato Matsuki<strong>

* * *

><p>Takato didn't need to think twice, throwing himself to one side before Guilmon's attack could hit him in the face. Tumbling across the tarmac the brown haired Tamer could hear his Partner give a confused snarl as the pink mist began to dissipate and the Rookie was left spinning around wildly in an attempt to figure out where he was. Guilmon must not have realised what was happening and attacked wildly in panic, his feral side not letting him think beyond a pre-emptive offensive against whatever else was in the mist.<p>

Rolling onto his back, Takato scrambled backwards slightly as Guilmon's eyes locked onto his own. Gulping, he could only watch on as his Digimon took a step towards him, his body refusing to move despite the screams from his brain to get up and run for all he was worth. It took all of a few seconds for Guilmon to reach him, standing over the goggle wearing teen and filling his view, casting him into shadow.

His mind was into total disarray, dozens of thoughts of what was about to happen playing out simultaneously in his head but Takato couldn't have predicted what Guilmon would actually do. He _sniffed_ him. Takato could only blink in confusion, watching dumbfounded as Guilmon bumped his snout against his forehead before tilting his head to side like a curious puppy, as if not sure why he was so afraid.

Pushing himself into a sitting position, Takato pulled his goggles back up and stared back at his Digimon with wide eyes. The large red saurian had lost all signs of hostility, bat-like ears drooping sadly at the brown haired teen's lack of real reaction. _Talk about déjà vu… _he thought before reaching out to give the Digimon a brief pat on the head.

"Guilmon…" he murmured softly, Takato's voice cracking as the red saurian nuzzled into his touch, tail wagging wildly like an excited puppy when the Tamer began to scratch behind one bat-like ear. The large Rookie just looked at him with large golden eyes that brimmed with familiarity and joy.

"Takato?" Guilmon asked in that childish whine he remembered so well, plopping down onto his rear so he could just stare at the Tamer and for one long moment Takato could only stare back, hand flopping back to his side.

"Guilmon!" Takato laughed as he lunged forward, flinging his arms around his Partner's neck and embracing the large red saurian in hug five years in the making as he choked back a sob of joy.

"Takato!"

"I've missed you boy…" Takato murmured, still refusing to pull away from his Partner as he managed to bring up one hand to wipe the tears away with the back of his hand.

"I've missed you too," Guilmon grinned at him when Takato finally pulled away from his friend. Before the conversation could go any further there was a loud grumble that cut the air like a gunshot, leaving both Tamer and Digimon staring at one another before the red Rookie finally burst into nervous laughter, looking as to hide his sheepish grin. "Did you bring any bread?"

Takato just blinked before letting out a bark as he almost toppled over sideways from laughing so hard, clutching his sides whilst Guilmon tried his hardest to work out just what exactly was so funny about the entire situation. Even after so many years apart, after so many different changes some things stayed the same.

"Now this is just touching: a boy and his Digimon together again after so long." Takato jerked around, panicking when he realised his enter reunion with Guilmon had been witnessed by someone else.

Across the park a man in his mid-twenties sat on a nearby bench, giving a slight wave with one hand. The man was dressed in an expensive, top-of-the-range three piece black suit and equally expensive white shirt whilst a silk red tie flapped about in the wind. For some odd reason Takato didn't understand the man was wearing a pair of fingerless biker gloves and two belts, a long chain hanging from one and tucked into his pocket with a black fedora with deep carmine band was pulled down over his eyes.

It really shouldn't have surprised him, Takato told himself as he remembered that the park was open to the public twenty fours a day – it would've been more unlikely for someone not to see him and Guilmon. What made him nervous though was that this man, all smirks and casually leaning into the bench, arms outstretched and utterly relaxed not only knew _what_ Guilmon was but what seemed to know exactly what was going on at that moment.

Guilmon likewise seemed put on edge by the man and his sudden appearance, hackles rising and eyes narrowing as he let off a low growl. Still, Takato knew no matter how creepy or out of place the man seemed he couldn't just let his Partner go around attacking strangers and put a hand on top of Guilmon's head in attempt to give him a comforting pat. It seemed to work as the Rookie's growls faded to a dull hiss but the feral look never left his eyes as he continued to stare unblinking at the new arrival.

"Who are you?" Takato asked whilst doing his best to sound confident – something he just couldn't bring himself to feel despite how everything looked advantageous for him sound things go south. The man on the bench just seemed so at ease and confident that the young Tamer couldn't help but wonder if he had some sort of trump card over him – the young brunette knew better than to take everything at face value these days.

This man radiated power and Takato certainly didn't want to get on his bad side if he could avoid it.

The man shook his head after a long tense moment, pushing the brim of his hat out of his face with one finger bloody red eyes stared back at him from behind short, spiky white bangs. Even with such a substantial distance between the stranger and the young Tamer, Takato could feel a chill run down his spine. _His eyes are so cold…_

"The _real_ question is who are you?" The man in the suit replied, smirking at Takato's perplexed expression.

"I'm Takato Matsuki…"

"That you are!" The man laughed bringing his hands up to give an obviously mocking clap, "Ask a stupid question and get a stupid answer, I suppose. Never mind that though, you'll figure out what I meant later. For now though I'm just here to talk,"

"Talk about what? You're not making any sense," Takato was beyond confused by this man and his sudden appearance. _How does he know what Guilmon is for a start… he can't be a Tamer can he? _He was far too old to be a Tamer; then again some would probably say the same about him when it came to being a Tamer now. "Do you want something from me?"

"Everybody wants something, kid," the Red-Eyed Man; Takato decided there was nothing else to call him for the time being, the irony wasn't lost on him either, said like he was trying to be as cryptic as humanly possible. "Personally; I'm just interested in sitting back and watching how the next few days play out, should be good. I mean your reaction to it all is going to be _gold_. But enough about me, what about you, what do _you_ want, Takato Matsuki?

"I mean, you've got the Digimon back after five years, so what's next?" the Red-Eyed Man added as he scratched his chin absent-mindedly. "Put the band back together? Though I suppose you'd have to work rather hard to pull that one off properly… is it finding out the truth about your forerunners or perhaps maybe you should be getting yourself ready for the trouble that's a brewing in the Digital World."

"Forerunners…? _What_?" Takato liked to think he was a patient person, he had to be to put up with Kazu, but this guy was really starting to annoy him. _He's trying to work you up, just stay calm; _he'd suffered enough bullies over the years to know that much – this guy was feeding him little bits and pieces to bait him in, grab his attention.

"C'mon, you're seriously not going to stand there and tell me you thought you and your little rabble of friends were the first Tamers? …I mean, _seriously_?" Takato blinked, not quite sure how to take the accusation because the truth was he'd honestly never really thought about it. How could they have _not_ been the first?

_The government covered it up once before, _he conceded to himself, but Takato still didn't understand how the world could've hidden Tamers before him and his friends if there really were others out there. Surely it wouldn't take long for something huge to come along and reduce a few city blocks to rubble and the reveal the secret to the world. _They managed to lie about the D-Reaper so who knows how many _accidents_ over the years have actually been Digimon attacks…? What's to stop Digimon appearing in some other country? I mean if the Japanese government covered it up why couldn't other governments?_

"It's sad: just how ignorant and arrogant you are. Then again I guess everyone's a little self-involved at your age and who can blame you? You teenagers think the entire world is out to get you." the Red-Eyed Man mocked as he shook his head before pulling open his jacket and reaching for something inside – a plain looking white envelope. "Here, it's dangerous to go alone: take this,"

"Huh …?" Takato asked as he took the envelope after a moment of hesitation. Taking a step back when he had his hands on it the young Tamer gave the envelope a quick once over, there was no name or address nor was it even properly sealed.

"That my friend is the start of the breadcrumb trail," said the Red-Eyed Man as he stood up from the bench, dusting himself off before pulling a pair of tinted red aviator sunglasses out of his breast pocket. "If you want answers then down the rabbit hole you'll go; you can bet on her to be honest with you at the very least, if she doesn't beat you bloody first give her rather _grim_ disposition nowadays. Hell, even the Olympians might not give you the chance to have a nice long chat and that might be the preferable option. She's honest though and won't sugar coat it the truth, that much I can promise." _Olympians…? What is this guy talking about?_

Before Takato could demand an answer his Digivice gave a a loud beep, or at least he'd thought it was his Digivice but the Red-Eyed Man quickly pushed up his jacket's left sleeve to reveal he was wearing a similar red and black device to Takato's Digivice but something told the Tamer it wasn't one. "Well, the old ball and chain say's I've had enough fun for today so you best get following those breadcrumbs, Matsuki – just because you've got Guilmon back doesn't mean the rest of your generation has been reunited with their Partners and the Olympians won't hesitate to destroy them regardless of the fact if they get in the way of their objective. You've got five years of rust to shake off and little time to do it in. Best of lucky with that,"

"Just who are you…?" Takato asked as the Red-Eyed Man slipped on his sunglasses as the sky rumbled with the sound of thunder and flash of lighting cut the sky as the first drops of rain fell from above, with more and more crashing down by the second.

"I'm someone who intends to win the game we're all fated to play out over the next few weeks." the Red-Eyed Man said, deadly serious as he stared over his glasses at Takato in stark contrast to his earlier casualness. "You best not let me down, Matsuki. I've got big plans for you after all given you're my favourite. Ta-ta for now," he added with a large smirk, pushing his glasses back up his nose before walking off into the downpour, whistling a jaunty little tune.

"What the heck just happened…?" Takato asked, turning to look at Guilmon as though he would somehow understand the situation better than he had.

"Evil," Guilmon hissed, still staring in the direction the Red-Eyed Man had vanished. "I could feel it Takato; that man is evil." _Maybe, _Takato agreed as he lifted up the envelope to have one last look at it before stuffing it into the back pocket of his jeans, _but he's given me the only lead I have right now. _The Red-Eyed Man did have him in a corner; if he wanted answers then he was obviously going to have to play along with whatever the man's plans were.

"Come on, Guilmon. Let's go home," Guilmon turned to look back at him, all toothy grins as he threw his claws into the air, cheering about going home to get some bread at long last. Despite it all: Guilmon's changes, the Red-Eyed Man's cryptic words, thoughts of the other Tamers and their partners returning with questions on who these Olympians and forerunners where Takato couldn't help himself when he laughed at Guilmon's carefree attitude at the mere thought of filling his belly with freshly baked bread.

"Guilmon beard!" the Rookie cried before charging off in the direction of the Matsuki Family Bakery like he'd never been gone, leaving Takato to scramble after him, almost slipping in a large puddle as he attempted to catch up with his runaway Partner.

"Guilmon wait up!" _It's good to know some things will never change… _the brown haired Tamer thought with a laugh, feeling as though he was twelve again and like he didn't have a care in the world. Takato was so caught up in the moment that he didn't even spare a moment to think about the conversation that awaited him when he finally got home.

* * *

><p>The fact he had to run after Guilmon whilst wanting to get out of the rain fast as possible ensured Takato made it home surprisingly fast. Thankfully the sudden turn in the weather seemed to have prompted a lot of people to vacate the streets in favour of staying dry, meaning Tamer and Digimon had gone unnoticed during the whole mad dash home for shelter and food.<p>

It really shouldn't have surprised him when he walked through the back door to the bakery, soaked to the bone, that he quickly had to get to work if he wanted to stop Guilmon from devouring everything in sight. So he went to work grappling with the red Rookie as though his life depended on it: which it very well might have at that point depending on his mother's mood. "Guilmon, no! That's not for you!" Takato wheezed out as he gave Guilmon one final tug away and both of them slipped on the wet floor and went tumbling into a rack of tins and pan that were lined up to be washed after dinner.

Guilmon gave a little moan of disappointment, rubbing at a sore spot on his head where a pan had stuck him whilst he sat atop a struggling Takato who lay amidst a sea of dirty dishes. Footsteps weren't far off and in a moment his mother stood in the doorway, arms folded over her chest whilst his father peeked around the door, curious as to what had made the entire commotion, both still dressed in their aprons and dirty work clothes.

"Well," his mother began in that stern tone of voice that told him he was in serious trouble but she couldn't bring herself to be properly cross with him, "I guess this explains where you ran off to when you were supposed to be cleaning your room." Forever the stern one of his parents, she really didn't look to be pushing forty five, her signature frown softened at the sight of Guilmon as she gave her temples a brief rub, trying to hide her slight smile.

"Hello!" Guilmon chirped, waving one claw in greeting before finally clambering off of Takato, who could only cough and wheeze as he finally felt the sweet relief of air. _Well, it doesn't seem like he's gotten any lighter these past few years even if he looks it… _the brunette thought as he pushed himself up into a sitting position, rubbing at the back of his head as he made eye contact with his parents, his father now leaning against the door frame in good natured bemusement.

"At least I have a good excuse this time, right?" His father laughed, shaking his head before he pushed away from the door and pulled off his apron, shouting about how dinner would be ready soon. His mother pursed her lips, but said nothing, instead she gestured with one hand and pointed up the stairs, the hint was clear: get changed out of those wet clothes and then we'll discuss this.

Takato nodded nervously before scampering up the stairs, pulling off his soaked clothes as he went, wringing them out before jumping into the upstairs shower to warm himself through before putting on dry clothes. His poor hoodie was going to take days to dry.

It took him all of ten minutes to shower and get changed into a clean t-shirt and shorts before trudging back down the stairs to the conversation he knew awaited him. He walked into the family kitchen to find his mother was already seated at the table, his father having started to dish up whilst Guilmon was already working his way through a pile of day old bread his father had given him seeing as none of it was fit to sell any more.

Takato took his usual seat opposite his parents, accepting the bowl of rice his mother offered him without as much as a single word, though he did nod his thanks. His parents didn't say anything either, instead everyone ate in silence as nobody really knew how they were supposed to start a conversation like the one they all needed to have – it wasn't like there were many other parents they could ask for advice on the topic.

In the end it took Guilmon walking over to the table, sitting down next to his Tamer and dropping his head into Takato's lap that the boy's father finally found his voice; "Why didn't you just tell us what was going on, Takato? We did say Guilmon would always be welcome here, didn't we?"

Takato looked down at the bottom of his bowl, pushing around what was left of his rice with his chopsticks. There was no anger, disapproval or judgement in his father's voice, only a simple curiosity even if his face wasn't quite as good at hiding his hurt; his son had betrayed his trust after all. It was only natural his parents would be upset and whilst the young Tamer admittedly felt guilty over sneaking out he didn't regret it for a second because he'd ultimately made the right decision: who knew what could have happened if he hadn't been there in time to meet Guilmon as soon as he materialized back into the human world?

"You did, but you both know what Guilmon coming back means," Takato looked up in time to see his parents exchange looks of understanding. "Admit it; a part of you only said what you did because neither of you actually thought Guilmon would ever come back after Hypnos was shut down."

His parents didn't blink at his accusation although they did both nod eventually, maybe a little surprised at their son's perception. "I guess we'd be lairs if we argued that point," his mother said as she clasped her hands together and closed her eyes for a moment, his father placing one of his hands on top of hers before they both swapped a sad look, turning back to him. "Please believe us when we say we're happy for you that Guilmon finally did come back after all these years. _We're_ happy he's back," he _is_ a part of the family, was the unsaid message and Takato managed a smile for his mother, which she returned.

Takato gave Guilmon another scratch behind the ears as his father took over the speaking role; "But you have to understand how difficult it was for us the first time around, son. This isn't just about our worries of you getting yourself hurt or worse any more, there's a lot more to it than that. Takato you're at that age when you need to be thinking about your future," his stomach churned at that comment and Takato found his guilt intensifying.

His family was by no means well off. Whilst, yes, the bakery did keep everyone feed and clothed and they earned enough to afford the occasional luxury the idea of sending Takato to college or university things got scary where money was concerned. His grades weren't awful but by no means was he the brightest bulb in the bunch and he had better odds on learning to fly than he did getting an academic scholarship. At the start of the school year Coach Takashi had made it clear to his parents he was sure Takato could go far on a good athletic scholarship, at the time no one had known if the man being nice or he genuinely believe the young Tamer had untapped talent. Of course the blond haired man had heavily stressed it would only happen if the young brunette continued to apply himself to the team and gave it everything he had and then some. Getting a scholarship would take a lot of pressure off of his parents but what if a wild Digimon injured him and he was left unable to play? Would he even have time to play if he went back to being a Tamer?

His parents had always made it clear they thought he could really do something with his life despite his quirks and they wanted so much more for him than just growing up and taking over the bakery and scrape by in life as they had: they had wanted to be bakers but it had never been Takato's dream. Takato in turn wanted to make something of himself to not only give his parents a son they could be proud of but pay them back for everything they'd done for him but he couldn't do that as a Tamer, getting rid of hostile Digimon would keep people safe but it wouldn't put food on the table.

"I know you guys care and only want what's best for me but I can't walk away from this," Takato said after a long pause in which his parents had let him think. Pulling off his goggles the young brunette stared down at the plastic lenses, eyeing his own reflection. "The first time I received my Digivice and Guilmon it was for a reason: to stop the D-Reaper. I need to believe that he's come back to me now for a reason as well. I've been given an important responsibility and I can't just abandon it. You taught me better than that."

"We understand," Takato blinked in surprise, looking up to see his mother smile at him, "truth be told I'd be more surprised if you didn't fight for this. You never asked for this duty yet you've accepted it not once but twice now without a second thought despite all the risks it poses. Your coach is right Takato; you are a natural born leader – people can't help but put their trust in you to do what's right, you have the kind of spirit that inspires others."

"I wouldn't go that far…" Takato chuckled sheepishly, rubbing at the back of his neck in embarrassment whilst his mother rolled her eyes, muttering about how he was too much like his father for his own good, something which his old man just laughed at whilst he too rubbed at the back of his neck. "I know this isn't easy for you guys, and I want you to understand that –"

"No," his father cut him off, holding up a hand, "you're right that this isn't easy for us but this is what you want and we'd be rather terrible parents if we didn't stand behind you in this decision even if we don't agree with it or understand. In the end there's nothing we can do to stop you from being a Tamer if that's what you really want."

"That being said, we do have conditions," his mother added and Takato went from elated and surprised to worried and groaning in two seconds flat. "You need to keep applying yourself in school and do your best to keep up your work with the basketball team. You'll need to learn to juggle it all, but summer is just around the corner and it'll give you some time to get used to having Guilmon back whilst doing things like helping us in the bakery and keeping up with your studies."

"Thank you," Takato said, Guilmon also chirping up with a thanks of his own as he grinned at the older Matsuki's, grins which they returned - if not as enthusiastically. "I know this isn't what you want for me, but I hope in time you guys can support me in-"

"Takato, you're our son and you'll have our support in whatever it is you choose to do." His father cut him off, ending the conversation there and then. Takato just blinked, completely unsure of what else to say so he just went back to his dinner.

"Does this mean I'm not grounded?" Takato asked when he finally finished his dinner, not sure if it would be pushing his luck to do so but his mouth was a few steps ahead of his brain. Still, asking couldn't make it any worse at this point and he needed to know.

"Given the circumstances, not this time, no." Takato silently cheered, having dodged the bullet on this occasion, but his mother cut his celebration short by adding; "You still have a room to clean before you go to bed, Guilmon or no." A loud thud echoed through the kitchen as Takato slumped forward and banged his head against the table, moaning in defeat. "You really are your father's son," his mother noted with a slight laugh whilst his father gave an innocent whistle in the background as he began to clear the table of dirty dishes.

* * *

><p>Sighing, Takato lay awake in bed as sleep refused him. His mind just didn't know how to switch off as he stared up at the ceiling; Guilmon's rasping snores coming from down the end of his bed where the Rookie was curled up like a giant cat before a large fire, dreaming of bread if his mutterings were any indication. The conversation with his parents during dinner had actually gone better than expected – not only had he avoided being grounded but his parents had, begrudgingly, acknowledged there was little they could do to stop him from being a Tamer if his heart was truly set on it.<p>

It hadn't gotten him out of cleaning his room though.

In the end it really hadn't taken him as long as he'd thought it would, but he wasn't left with much time to do anything else when he remember he had work that was due the next day at school. So the young Tamer went to town on his homework, his messy handwriting would give his teachers a good challenge when he handed it in, but he wanted to get it all done before going to bed.

In the end he'd managed his tasks, with his room clean and homework done he headed for bed. He and Guilmon talked a little whilst he'd gotten ready for bed, the red Digimon's word still bugged him as he lay awake; "Takato, did you Digivolve?" At the time he'd just about fallen about the floor laughing at the absurdity of the question. The very idea of trying to explain the concept of puberty and growing up to the childish Digimon had Takato in tears.

He'd done his best to appease the Rookie's curiosity and had said: "I grew up, Guilmon; it's something all humans do at my age. It's kind of like Digivolving over a long period of time were lots of little things change but it's not like I've increased in level or something like that."

"So does that mean I've grown up, too?" Takato had been left unable to answer his Digimon, stunned at the question. In all honesty Takato didn't even know if a Digimon could grow up in the same way a human did. He didn't even know they could change in the way Guilmon had - but had his Partner really grown up or had something more sinister occurred during the five years he'd been in the Digital World? Guilmon was far from an ordinary Digimon after all.

"Guilmon, what exactly happened to you to bring about all these new changes?" Takato had asked as he sat down on his bed in nothing but his sleeping shorts. Guilmon had just preformed a shrug-like gesture, unsure himself as he replied with a simple: "I don't remember,"

Takato had just shaken his head in response, thinking it typical of Guilmon to completely forget something so important. The more he thought about it though as he'd lay awake, unable to sleep, the more the fact began to worry him – just what exactly had Guilmon gone through in the last five years and where were the other Partner Digimon like Terriermon and Renamon? In hindsight it was probably one the first things he should've asked but he was just so caught up in everything that was going on that a lot of things that should've hit him earlier were only doing so now.

Tomorrow was another day though as he could afford to wait a few more hours, he'd let Guilmon rest. Any questions that were bugging him could wait until the morning. Or, at least, the ones only Guilmon could answer could wait.

The thing that was really eating at him was the strange man from the park who's letter he'd still not opened, the envelope sat crumpled on the corner of his desk, calling out to him. Takato really didn't want to open it because doing so would be playing into the man's plans, whatever they were, and given his own misgivings about the guy and Guilmon's reaction that was the last thing he wanted to do. Still, the man had fed him just enough to get him curious and he needed some answers.

Groaning, Takato rolled over and buried his face in his pillow – cursing his over active imagination as dozens of different scenarios flooded his mind as he thought over everything Fancy Suit had said to him. _Were we really not the first Tamers…? But if these forerunners do exist why didn't help when the D-Reaper attacked?_ Maybe they couldn't, part of him pointed out seeing as it was rather obvious – just because others came before didn't mean they were still Tamers to this day; maybe they themselves had lost their Partners long before the D-reaper ever appeared.

He just kept coming back to the fact that Tamers before he and his friends would've surely been discovered sooner or later, just as they had. _Unless it's like the show… _Takato thought, rolling onto his back again before clambering into a sitting position, _maybe the show has some basis in reality; if there were other Tamers there's nothing to say their adventure wasn't entirely in the Digital World. Ryo somehow got in on his own long before we did, who says he was the first to do it?_

In that moment he gave in, getting out of bed and walking over to his desk, dropping into his wheelie chair as he picked up the envelope. All that was inside was a single sheet of folded paper with all two pieces of information on it: an address and the name of a website whilst under both was a simple four digit number: _1306_.

Spinning around his chair he faced his desk, quickly booting up his laptop as the need to know more drove him on. His laptop wasn't particularly top of the range though it wasn't utterly garbage so thankfully he didn't have to wait too long for the thing start up and let him begin his journey down the breadcrumb trail – as the Red-Eyed Man had put it.

Clicking on the _Firefox_ short-cut, Takato decided the best thing to do was to check the address first using Google Map because sure as hell didn't know how else to find it. Of all places he hadn't suspected the address would be to an apartment building in Odaiba. _So the number must be to the apartment I need to __go to, _it made sense as he thought about it a little more, leaning back in his chair as he stared at the screen in front of him.

His father's elder sister lived in Odaiba and ran a flower shop whilst his uncle worked in Kyoto most of the year round whilst his eldest cousin, Mimi's best friend, lived all of twenty minutes away given she worked in Shinjuku and her circumstance made commuting to work every day difficult. It seemed so strange that this person who possibly had the answers he was looking for lived no further away than some of his extended family.

_If you want answers then down the rabbit hole you'll go; you can bet on her to be honest with you at the very least_… so whoever lived at this address was a woman, or at least he was looking for one. Maybe she could give him a good idea as to who the Red-Eyed Man really was – or who these Olympians were. _Just because you've got Guilmon back doesn't mean the rest of your generation has been reunited with their Partners and the Olympians won't hesitate to destroy them regardless of the fact._

The idea troubled him; people had been caught up in Digimon attacks before, but never had any of their enemies outside of the D-Reaper intentionally gone after those who couldn't fight back, they were more interested in chasing after the Tamers or Calumon. Chancing a glance at his phone, he snatched it off his desk, rattling off a quick text to Kazu, he owed his friend too much to hide this from him and the beanie wearing boy needed to know his life might be in danger.

_Meet me at Guilmon's old shed before school, it's important. _Putting his phone down when he was satisfied with the message, Takato turned back to his laptop. His web browser was still open so he decided no further harm could come from looking at the website on the piece of paper though it did nothing to ease his troubled mind – if anything it made things worse. A page with no links or anything or the sort outside of a single, large digital clock with dark red numbers that was counting down to what he had no idea.

**17:00:00:53**

Rubbing the back of his head, Takato checked the clock on his laptop – it was July eighteenth, and the clock read _01:22_. Counting it off on his fingers, the younger Tamer realised that the clock would hit zero on August fourth at exactly _01:23_ in the morning but whatever happened when it did hit zero was something he didn't know. For all he knew it could be the count down to when the world ended or when the site went live.

Groaning, Takato slumped down in his chair as he rubbed his face with his hands, his opening the letter had done nothing as far as easing his thoughts, but he was just so tiered from thinking about it all so at least maybe he could rest for now. Turning off the computer, he pushed himself out of his chair and flopped down on top of his bed, his last thoughts before he closed his eyes were that tomorrow was another day.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:** Admittedly this is nothing more than a build up chapter but an important one nonetheless. The first and third scenes are of course plot important but Takato's conversation with his parents is really insightful when it comes to further establishing characters and showing off Takato's relationship with his parents and displaying a few of the drawbacks that would come with being a Tamer at Takato's age without the help of something like Hypnos around - I actually had a lot of fun writing the scene and hope to included a little more of Takato's parents in future if I get the chance, it's nice to show how close they are with their son and how important they are to him.


	3. Sick of Everyone

_**Degrees of Succession**_

* * *

><p><strong>III<strong>

* * *

><p><em>While looking for the answers, only questions come to mind<br>'Cause I've been lost in circles, which seems now for quite some time  
>And I don't know how I came here, even how I got this far<br>All I can tell you is my fate is written in the black stars  
>Well, what am I supposed to do?<em>

_Sick of Everyone - _Sum 41

* * *

><p><strong>July Eighteenth<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Takato Matsuki<strong>

Takato's morning hadn't exactly been a good one thus far and there was no sign that the day was going to get any better in the near future.

To start the morning off he'd had the monumental task of not only getting Guilmon out of the house before Mimi could see him as she'd shown up earlier than usual, but stop the saurian from consuming everything in sight like a giant red vacuum. Thankfully his parents had managed to distract Mimi long enough for Takato to smuggle his Partner out of the bakery without incident and avoided the attention of any customers who had showed up at opening time and reduced the likely hood of being spotted as Tamer and Digimon headed for their old hideout.

Guilmon hadn't been exactly happy with the idea of having to hide out in the old shed again, something he'd made abundantly clear with his whining but the only other option was he stayed inside of Takato's tiny bedroom all day, an even worse option in the Digimon's opinion. Neither of them had been spotted far as Takato could tell and the area around the shed was still as unused as it had been five years ago so Guilmon could at least have some space to run around in without fear of being discovered if he got overly restless.

"Takato they filled up my hole…" Guilmon had bemoaned upon arrival at the shed, ears drooping he added; "Now I have to start digging all over again." Takato had laughed, praying his Partner wasn't serious as he watched Guilmon sniff at the ground in attempt to decide where best to start or maybe looking for the location of the original hole but in the end Tamer had ordered the Rookie to not dig up the shed a second time – not that the red saurian would listen in all likelihood.

Whilst Guilmon's whining hadn't exactly been fun to listen to it was bearable as it was only a small sacrifice in the long run, but it was only a matter of time before Guilmon had wanted to know why they had to go back to the shed if he didn't need to stay there. "Are we meeting the others?" Guilmon had asked happily; tail wagging again as he started talking about seeing the others whilst stuffing his face with a massive piece of bread he'd stolen from the bag of food that was meant to last him all day; cheeks swelling up like a hamster's, eye wide with hope as he looked up at Takato.

The young Tamer could only shake his head, muttering out a weak; "Sort of," as he shrugged one shoulder. Confused, his Partner had looked at him as though to demand a more in-depth explanation.

Takato hadn't told Guilmon about how things had fallen apart with the other Tamers – he just didn't know how to without crushing his friend's spirit. In the end he didn't have much choice as Guilmon had forced his hand by repeatedly asking the same simple question over and over again; "_Why_?"

"Listen, Guilmon, things are different now," Takato had tried to play it off and dodge the conversation altogether if he could but his luck had never been that good when it came to stuff like this. Discussing the implosion of the Shinjuku Tamers had not been on his to-do list when he woke up that morning and the brunette had no plans on adding it to the list. "Everyone's grown up and gone their separate ways: we don't talk any more. Kazu's meeting us here but he's the only one."

"Why…?" Guilmon repeated as though the answer was simple; like the reason could be summed up in a single sentence but things were never that easy. Head tilting to one side the Digimon had stopped ramming bread down his throat for a moment to stare at Takato as if it would help him miraculously come up with a reasonable explanation. Takato had just made a sour face, irritated that Guilmon couldn't accept his earlier explanation and let the matter drop so they could move on.

"We're not friends any more so just drop it, _okay_?" It'd stung to admit that, Takato couldn't lie to himself now hours later as he sat in class, but at the time he'd been to irritated to care much – he just wanted the conversation to _end_.

"_Why_?"

"Because we're _not_!" Takato had snapped, rounding on the inquisitive Digimon and Guilmon had actually recoiled in shock at the teen's outburst. "Guilmon, I… I just don't want to talk about this, okay?" The red Rookie gave a little nod, smiling weakly to try and hide that he was upset before silence reigned supreme. At the time the young Tamer had just been glad he was able to get Guilmon to stop talking about such a touchy subject but now all he felt was disgust over how he'd flown off the handle so easily.

_Damn it, _Takato though as he ran a hand through his hair (not even pretending to listen to his teacher as they began talking about some work the class was meant to do over the summer break), did he really have that little patience nowadays? No, that couldn't be it; he _did_ put up with Kazu on a daily basis. It'd only really hit him in that momentary outburst that whilst Guilmon had physically changed, mentally he was still as childlike as he was when he'd first been born and that _bothered_ Takato. It hadn't been a huge deal five years ago as he'd related to Guilmon's inquisitiveness and naïve optimism about everything thing and everyone – but here here he was five years on: jaded by a world that had never spared a second thought for him whilst Guilmon still managed to live in ignorant bliss, oblivious to just how cruel the world could really be.

Truthfully, Takato _envied_ Guilmon for that.

All of the Digimon had probably fought with everything they had to stay together whilst the Tamers had just stood and watched everything fall apart. They'd all sort of gravitated into smaller clusters and though Takato had struggled to keep them all together even he had eventually stopped trying and just let reality sink in and take its toll. They had all runaway from one another when things had gotten too hard, haunted by the memories they all shared with no glue to hold them together. He'd run away from Rika when an outburst had caused their relationship to become strained and not once had he tried to correct his mistakes, to ashamed of what he'd said in the heat of the moment. Things between the pair of them had changed radically and for the worse and it had left him terrified of what the next and likely last encounter would bring.

Sighing, Takato slumped in his seat at the back of the classroom as the bell for the end of third period rung loudly across the school grounds. The teacher bid them the best of luck, telling them to have a good summer but the goggle wearing Tamer didn't care – he could barely concentrate as it was without having to focus on his lessons as well. The teacher soon left and the class was left alone until their next teacher arrived and most turned to talk to one another during the wait. Kazu would usually almost instantly turn and talk to him about whatever nonsense was on his mind at the time but today, just like at the end of first and second period his friend's back remained firmly too him as the beanie wearing teen glared daggers at a mark on the blackboard.

His conversation with Kazu had somehow managed to go even worse than his one with Guilmon.

Well, to call it a conversation was being nice, in reality Kazu had turned up like Takato had asked only to find Guilmon and suddenly loose his voice. Takato had done everything he could to offer his best friend some sort of explanation but it was difficult when he himself had no real answers, all he'd gotten out of the beanie wearing boy had been grunts and the odd stiff nod.

Takato had quickly run out of things to say, having blabbered on about Guilmon's confused state on arrival, the Red-Eyed Man, Guilmon's reaction to said stranger, the letter and what was in it, mentions of their supposed forerunners and the Olympians and even the weird website. Kazu had just nodded his head throughout before muttering, "Looks like I wasn't good enough after all," after which he turned and left without another word.

It was widely known that Kazu had a bad habit of being an attention seeker, rarely through good means either. What a lot of people didn't know was where the need for attention came from: ever since he was little Kazu had suffered heavily from an inferiority complex, one that came from being outclassed in every way possible by his younger brother and his father never failing to remind him of it. The pair had known each other their entire lives, their mother's being old friends from school, and Takato had never heard Kazu's father say _anything_ even remotely nice to him that didn't sound lamely generic. It was ironic, Kazu wanted some positive attention and support from his father, to be loved like his brother, but the ways he'd gone about about trying to get his father's attention had only helped to enforce the idea that his brother was the better son.

Takato, to an extent, had understood and sympathised. He himself he'd always struggled to keep up with what he thought his parents standards were and worried over their opinion but unlike Kazu he had since grown out of it thanks to his time as a Tamer - it helped he had always been much closer to his parents due to being an only child.

The fact he could relate a little didn't mean Takato was going to let Kazu hide behind his inferiority complex this time - it annoyed him that his best friend could somehow turn this around him and make him feel like the villain because of the fact Guilmon had returned but Guardramon hadn't. If it'd been up to the goggle wearing teen all the Digimon would have come back together as one but the real world didn't work like that. Even if Guardramon had come back and Guilmon hadn't he'd have the decency to try and at least pretend to look happy so as to support his friend.

Takato really couldn't help but feel that Kazu needed to get over himself and realise that whilst Guardramon might not have returned yet, Guilmon's arrival was proof that he would hopefully rejoin them soon. Well, it wasn't really but he needed to believe it was as he wasn't sure what else would bring Kazu out of his funk any time soon.

Kazu's attitude wasn't even the end of it; someone was watching him.

Takato didn't know who or what it was, but he'd gotten rather good at being able to tell when he was being watched thanks to Renamon's bad habit of lurking out of sight and watching the Tamers from afar. He had his suspicions about who it could be, but the one that made the most sense brought him little comfort: _The Olympians… _he frowned, not sure if he'd prefer that over the other possibility he'd come up with after some thought.

If someone really was watching him then they'd know that Guilmon had returned but Kazu was still vulnerable without his Partner. As much as his friend had him frustrated he'd never willing risk the taller boy's safety so the goggle wearing Tamer was trying to figure out just how he could get whoever was tailing him to come out of hiding without endangering anyone else.

It was in that moment his Digivice decided to go off with a screeching beep, shrieking so loudly he almost went deaf. The entire classroom turned to look at him in alarm as a siren sounded from the device around his wrist, and in his surprise, being caught completely unaware, Takato had toppled off of his chair in panic and almost sending his desk flying into Kazu's back. Groaning, the brunette rolled onto his side and looked at his Digivice through blurry eyes, the back of his head stinging in pain.

_Category Two: Materialisation Imminent. What the heck is that supposed to mean? _Takato moaned as he read the screen before clambering back to his feet just as Miss Asaji walked into the classroom. Acting on auto pilot Takato quickly rattled off an excuses about not feeling well, which wasn't entirely untrue thanks to the bump on his head, and quickly asked to go to the nurse.

Miss Asaji hadn't really given a response other than a rather befuddled nod of approval as Takato staggered from the classroom. _Looks like it's time to go to work, _he thought, realising his mother was going to kill him if she found out he snuck off school grounds to deal with a wild Digimon during class time – better that than have a few city blocks blown to Kingdom Come, he supposed.

* * *

><p>Today <em>really<em> wasn't a good day.

Takato had run at full speed to get to Shinjuku Central Park as fast as his legs could carry him, only to find that Guilmon was nowhere to be found – his Partner had wondered off on him _again_; so much for hoping that bad habit would have disappeared over their five years apart. Panicking, Takato had done the only thing that made sense at the time: he'd headed for where his Digivice was saying the Digimon was going to enter the human world, assuming the red saurian would have sensed it coming and already headed off to confront it.

When he finally reached the park's picnic area, it testified to his theory that Guilmon had indeed sensed the arrival of a new Digimon and went on ahead. Or so he thought. Panting, Takato stumbled up one final hill to where Guilmon sat, his ears drooping sadly as he gazed out at the trashed benches and crater riddled grass, dirt thrown everywhere and a nearby cherry blossom tear had been uprooted whilst huge tracks littered the area.

"Guilmon you could have at least waited for me before fighting the wild Digimon," Takato panted, leaning over as he tried to catch his breath. "I know you can handle yourself but we need to get used to fighting as a team again."

"I didn't do this," Guilmon murmured softly in a strangely serious tone of voice, eyes narrowed as he looked up at his Tamer. "Another Digimon got here before I did and loaded the data of the Wild One – I can feel it. It wasn't a nice Digimon that did this Takato, it wanted to hurt anything that got in its path." Takato's Partner added upon seeing his shocked look.

"Wait, so you're saying there's something still here possibly," Takato asked, but Guilmon shook his head as to single that whatever had done this was long since gone from the scene of the crime. Growling lowly, Takato buried his face in his hands, before ruffling his hair with a howl of frustration: why was fate so determined to toy with him today? _Maybe karma finally decided it was time to cough-up and make me pay my dues..._

Sighing, the younger Tamer stood up properly, giving his friend a quick scratch behind the ears, murmuring; "C'mon boy, let's get you back to the shed before someone figures out I'm missing from school." That was the last thing he needed, still the years had provided him with a lot of hidden cynicism and Takato had long come to realise that if something could go wrong then odds were stack so it would – which meant between the picnic zone the utility shed something was bound to blow up in his face. He didn't even get to turn around before Guilmon gave a growl and spun around, and Takato followed him.

The Red-Eyed Man had returned, dressed in the same grab as the day before and casually propped against one of the nearby trees that hadn't been upturned. The older man just smirked at Takato, lighting up a cigarette under the shade of the tall tree, taking off his hat to run a hand through his hair for a moment.

"I never took you as one to skip out on school, even when duty called," the Red-Eyed Man said after taking a long drag, "colour me impressed, Matsuki. You're more dedicated than I figured which works out well for me but it also lost me a bet. Ah well, balance and all that other cosmic bullshit,"

"What does the clock on the website mean?" Takato said without missing a beat, eyes narrowing as a little of frustration began to boil over. The last thing he'd needed was for the mysterious man to pop up with more cryptic information and try to manipulate him into doing something incredibly stupid.

"That's a rather odd question to lead with…" the Red-Eyed Man chuckled, pushing off of the tree and walking over to join Takato were he could look out over the picnic area better.

"_What does the clock mean_?" Takato repeated, but the Red-Eyed Man just shrugged, raising his hands in mock surrender.

"I don't know," Takato didn't believe him for a second, even when he put a hand over his heart and added: "Hand over heart I swear I don't know what the clock is counting down to. I was just following orders when I gave you that link. My bosses like to keep me on a need to know basis when it comes to their plans."

"Your bosses?"

"Ah-ah-ah, don't want any spoilers now, do you?" the suit wearing man grinned, before flicking away his cigarette after taking one last drag. "But my bosses aren't important right now, what is important though is that you understand that this is only a tiny teaser of the kind of rampant destruction that is coming your way. The Olympians were never much for subtly and you can't fight all of them along - they will reduce half of Tokyo to dust if it gets them what they seek."

"So one of these Olympians did this?" the Red-Eyed Man nodded without a word. "Will the address you gave me let me more about these Olympians?"

"No," the older man shook his head, folding his arms over his chest as his expression turned serious. "The woman whose address I gave you knows very little of the Olympians, none of which is relevant to the battle you'll have to fight. What she can tell you is the true origins of the Tamers and their history up until the battle with the D-Reaper and their side of it. Whilst it might not seem like it, it's all information you'll need sooner or later so why don't you just go ahead and ask the question which is really bothering you,"

"Why haven't all the other Partner Digimon returned?" Takato asked, not sure if the answer would bring him any sort of odd comfort he could pass along to Kazu or if it would only make things worse.

"Because history is repeating itself and these things take time," the Red-Eyed Man turned to him, smirking as he pushed the brim of his hate out of his face with one finger, "give it another few days. There's an order of arrival that needs to be respected. Toddles,"

And with that the Red-Eyed Man walked off, Takato more than happy to let him walk away – he had everything he needed to make his move already. "C'mon, Guilmon it's about time to stop playing dumb and have a long over due talk." Guilmon blinked dumbly at him, tilting his head in confusion but nonetheless followed behind his Tamer without questioning where they were going.

It took him some time find the exact spot he was looking for, his memory a little hazy on the exact details but Takato found what he was looking for even if it had taken him twenty minutes. Checking the watch on his Digivice as he walked down the grassy slope towards the dirt path the brunette realised it was pointless to delay the whole thing considering he been gone from school so long already that it was pretty clear he'd skipped class.

_That nasty sensation that someone was watching me, it's a little different now but there's no denying that I've know all along who it was. _"You can come out now, Renamon!" Takato called as he arrived in the middle of the dirt path and tucked his hands into his pocket. _Chronologically speaking among the Shinjuku Tamers Ryo was first to receive a Partner Digimon, then Henry. Rika was the third one to become a Tamer and I got a Guilmon not long after that._

Whilst he was pretty confident in his theory it didn't mean he was prepared for what actually happened. Somewhere out of sight a twig snapped, Guilmon's hackles raised and his eyes narrowed as he let out a low, feral snarl; "I sense worthy prey." Only for the worthy prey in question to come crashing down from out of the sky and pummel the red Rookie into the dirt, the ground cracking under the force, dust flying into the air.

Guilmon wasn't about to accept such a sucker punch without a retort and rolled over, throwing his attacker off of him before he snapped his head around and blasted the shadowy figure with a flaming ball of hot plasma. A few years ago the sight probably would have had Takato panicking and completely at a loss over what to do, but he'd be a liar if he said a part of him hadn't expected the whole ordeal after the day he'd had so far.

A large yellow and white vixen skidded back across the dirt path, casually dusting herself off as her tail whipped around behind her. Looking up, the Digimon met Takato's eye and smirked at the sight of his goggles. Once the Kitsune hadn't been much taller than him or any of the other Tamers, now she still managed to match his eye level at nearly six foot, she was as well groomed, her purple gloves gone and replaced by shiny, form fighting purple gauntlets that came up to her elbows, worn over white wraps with long black, silver studded belts wrapped around her upper arms.

"Takato… _Guilmon_," Renamon said in the same deep, husky tone of voice he remembered as she nodded in greeting, a little taken aback by Guilmon's own changes. "I must say it took you longer than I thought to realise it was me following you."

Takato wasn't listening though; he was too busy staring at the girl who was now leaning against the wire fence behind Renamon. Dressed in her own school uniform, thigh-high cotton white tights, knee-length high-waist pleated grey skirt, white shirt and cute little red tie underneath a white hoodie, maybe two or three sizes to big, with teal coloured sleeves. After a long pause the girl finally took off the bulky headphones she'd been wearing over her hood and hung them around her neck so she could pull down her hood and glare at him with amethyst eyes over matching coloured sunglasses.

She'd cut her hair, once long and more often than not done up in a pineapple ponytail it was mostly gone now, replaced by a shoulder length, ruffled mass of spiky, copper-coloured locks with bangs framing her face and falling between her eyes. Although he hadn't seen her since last November, Rika Makino was pretty much exactly the same as he remember (hair aside) and even though he towered over her Takato wouldn't deny he was intimidated a little by the look he was getting. Rika was could be extremely scary when she wanted to be.

"Rika," he finally managed, doing his best to look like he actually wanted to be there. Admittedly he _was _glad to be there, he was even happier that Rika was indeed really there – after everything he _finally_ had an excuse to confront her after the way things had ended between them. The only problem was he really didn't want to have the conversation that was looming if he could avoid it, he didn't want to know where it might lead but his odds of dodging it now were none existent.

It was his own fault he was in the damned situation in the first place, he wouldn't deny that and although most people thought otherwise Takato had never done so well in high pressure situations. Everyone had this odd belief that he did for whatever reason, that he could stand up and lead when no one else could but truth was more often than not he got through high pressure situations like the battle with the D-Reaper simple because there wasn't any other option left to him. But in the one situation that had really counted he'd run away because the other possibility had terrified him because so many things could've gone horribly, horribly wrong if he'd taken that route.

"Gogglehead," Rika spoke in a low, yet surprisingly soft voice that was more cold than it was angry. Takato's face fell at the nickname, so they were back to square one. A long time ago it had been a demeaning nickname which was later used with begrudging respect and finally it was only saved for when Rika was either feeling playful and wanted to tease him or was _really _annoyed with him. It shouldn't have surprised him he was back to being Gogglehead or any combination nickname featuring the word goggle but it still stung to be set so far back.

"Listen, Rika–"

"Save it, I really don't care for anything you have to say anymore." _Damn that's cold… _Takato thought, even if he agreed that Rika had every right to hate on him there was something much bigger than their problems going on they needed to put things aside for a day or two and get a handle on things. "You got your dino back, big whoop - just stay out of my way and we can both just get on with our lives."

Takato wanted to snap back with a retort of his own, he was really sick of everyone's attitude problems. Anything he might have bit back with though died in his mouth as Guilmon seemed to flicker and buzz, almost becoming transparent as his coded flashed for all to see. "Guilmon…!"

"It's coming – the first of four. One of them has come to this world," Guilmon hissed, turning away from everyone else as he seemed to stabilize and head off in the direction of Tokyo Bay. "First the dragon by sea, then the one of wood and strings where others shall gather to learn and play and finally the master of machines set upon the island to broadcast their message to the world – three of the four shall come to lay the ground work for The Final Coming."

"What the hell is your dinosaur babbling about, Gogglehead!?" Rika demanded as she and Renamon followed in the pursuit of the single-minded Guilmon. Takato had no answer, even if he did he wouldn't have gotten to give it as both Digivices went off with a shriek at that exact moment. Four words were enough to cause Rika to go pale and leave Takato utterly confused. _Category Four: Materialisation Imminent._

"What the heck is a Category Four?"

"A Category is a designation; a system used by these new model of Digivice to help discern the level and power of a Digimon that is about to enter the human world." Renamon said as they lost sight of Guilmon as he exited the park, but the shrieks of passers-by, skidding cars and savage growls meant they didn't lose his trail. "A Category Four is the equivalent to an extremely powerful Mega-level Digimon, one that will cause untold damage it not deleted quickly."

"Whatever the hell it is it's about to Biomerge right in the middle of Tokyo Bay in _broad daylight_, looks like it will come out right on top of the Rainbow Bridge!" _Oh that's not good… _"Looks like the world's about to get a real rude wake up call," Rika said with a hint of bitterness and slight smugness, and Takato himself couldn't help but wonder just how well the government was going to take the fact that their plan to bury their heads in the sand didn't work in the long run.

"Are you kidding me, there's no way we'll get there in time to stop this thing before it starts causing chaos!" Takato wanted to tear his hair out as he began to slow down, even for someone that ran long distances on a daily basis this was ridiculous and Guilmon was long gone and only a trail of panic and damage proved he was ever there. _What the heck was Guilmon even talking about…? Dragon by sea and one of wood and strings…? _His eyes went wide when he put two and two together and suddenly realised just why that all sounded so familiar.

"Holy _shit_, it _is_ real!" Takato laughed for some reason even he didn't understand, throwing his arms up and wondering around in small circle as he ruffled his own hair. Rika looked at him as though he'd sprouted a second head, taken aback by his his sudden cursing as the goggle wearing Tamer tried to control his fit of hysterics.

"Want to clue me in, genius?" The short redhead finally interrupted, he'd all but forgotten she had no idea what was going on in his fit of mad laughter, she just continued to glare up at him when she got no response.

"Not enough time to explain, we need to stop Guilmon and whatever is about to Biomerge in the Bay; though I'd bet good money on it being a MetalSeadramon." Takato shook his head, pointing off in the direction of Shinjuku Station. "Our only option is to get to Shinjuku Station and hope the trains aren't too busy and we can still get there before something serious happens."

"There is no _we_," Rika stated coldly as she folded her arms over her chest.

"Listen, Rika I get you really don't like me much right now but this isn't about us, and I need your help. _Please_," Takato said softly as he realised just how bad things were between them. He'd hoped she would be able to at least tolerate the idea of helping him if it meant protecting innocent people from crazed, wild Digimon. Rika just looked up at him for one long moment, the next thing he knew he was on his rear clutching his face, seeing as how she'd just punched him. _Defiantly could have been worse, _Takato decided as the redhead glared down at him.

"Don't think for a second this is anywhere near done. I want answers, about whatever you and your dino are blabbering about even if I need to beat them out of you." Takato just nodded, still nursing his sore face as he clambered back to his feet.

"I'll tell you everything I know," Takato swore, as he offered her a handshake. Rika instead looked down at him, eyes a storm of sadness, anger, betrayal and something else he couldn't quiet make out. He quickly took the hint and retracted his hand. She wasn't ready to trust him again, and he couldn't say he blamed her. The copper haired girl grunted, glaring at him one last time before she jerked her head towards the train station.

"This _isn't_ over," _I don't know what I'd do if it was, _Takato thought as Renamon faded from sight on Rika's orders and the pair began the mad dash towards Shinjuku Train Station. _Baby steps, Takato, _he told himself, _first make sure the giant evil Digimon about to arrive in the bay doesn't kill anyone and then you can panic about how you're going to fix things with Rika. What does step one sound so much easier than two?_


	4. Iron Man

_**Degrees of Succession**_

* * *

><p><strong>IV<strong>

* * *

><p><em>Has he lost his mind?<br>Can he see or is he blind?  
>Can he walk at all,<br>Or if he moves will he fall?  
>Is he alive or dead?<br>Has he thoughts within his head?  
>We'll just pass him there<br>why should we even care?_

_Iron Man_ - Black Sabbath

* * *

><p><strong>July Eighteenth<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Takato Matsuki<strong>

Takato just about fell out of the train when it finally reached Shibaura Futo, "We've got to get to the old shipyard; Guilmon is somewhere around there," he said checking the tracker on his Digivice and groaning as he tried to look around the crowded station and squeeze his way between the throngs of people and make his way to the stairs.

"Easier said than done Gogglehead," Rika said with a roll of her eyes as she followed him through the crowd, shoving her way past a couple of businessmen who were all staring at something on one of the news-feed screens. "How do you plan on finding Guilmon? I mean the tracker is handy and all but it isn't going to get us past the fences and into the shipyard."

"Knowing Guilmon I'd say he has already left us a door; we just need to find it." Renamon said as she appeared in a flash of yellow and white, running down the steps of Shibaura Futo as they made for the exit. Takato nodded his own agreement, cringing as he saw the huge amount of cars that had begun to pile up on the main road that led up to the lower road of the bridge.

Shaking his head Takato pushed those thoughts to one side and ran down the length of the street, the trees rising high on either side of him with Rika and Renamon only a step or two behind. Skidding to a halt, the brunette Tamer was about to turn the corner so he could cut across the street towards the old shipyard he saw the very thing that had brought them all the way out to Tokyo Bay in the first place: a huge, perfect sphere of glowing blue data that thrummed deeply as it flashed, pale blue mist seeping from the base just above the waters of the bay, enveloping almost the entire mid-section of the Rainbow Bridge and crackling as it sucked dry any source of power that came close.

"There's no way anything that comes out of that is a good thing," Rika stated the obvious, but Takato found himself nodding dumbly in agreement as the two Tamers and Digimon stared on at the giant sphere. "I've never heard of anything like this – whatever is coming through is gong to make the Devas look like chumps."

"To need a field of that size…" Renamon murmured, looking down at Rika who nodded in turn. "It's seems as though the Category Fours were every bit as powerful as we suspected. I fear to even try to imagine what a Category Five might be capable of."

"_Category Five_? You mean there's something worse than _this_!?" Takato spluttered in a panic as he turned back to Rika and Renamon as he gestured blindly behind himself in the direction of the giant data sphere that was beginning to swell in size as sparks flew off of its surface as it tried to leech more power.

"The Digivice… they have dictionaries – databases full of Digimon species and special pages that document how some are radically different from all the others like them. These databases say that there are only a few dozen Digimon powerful enough to classified as Category Fives and they're all described as one thing," Rika looked up at him, her face a nasty grey colour as though she was about to throw up due a nasty image that had just come to mind; "they're called global killers."

"A Digimon strong enough to single-handedly destroy cities in mere minutes," Renamon murmured, shaking her head. "The kind of Digimon the D-Reaper was designed to destroy because there was simply no other solution to them: if one ever actually came to earth the body count would be unfathomable."

Any further conversation on the power levels of possible god-like Digimon was cut short as the ground shook as a huge _crack_ cut the air, ringing out for miles. The giant sphere splitting perfectly down the middle whilst a second _crack_ sent shock waves coursing out from the sphere, crashing into the ocean bellow and creating enormous waves to rise and crash into the waterfront with the force of a miniature tsunami whilst Rainbow Bridge groaned and buckled as cords snapped and frame work bent like paper. The two halves of the sphere merely shattered into blue mist that swirled and spread out over the surface of the bay, growing thicker the further it spread.

"What the heck is _that_…?" Takato said barely above a whisper as his entire body began to seize up in fright: hovering in mid-air above the now crippled bridge was a giant serpent armoured in smooth plate of shimmering gold and white; lights flashing a pale sea green began to slow in their blinking as the leviathan uncoiled itself and raised its head and eyes of cold, brilliant gold looked down upon the citizens now looking up at it.

"GigaSeadramon," Rika said with a straight face as she looked down at the display of her Digivice, strapped around her wrist like Takato's own. Takato had to give her credit for seemingly staying so calm, but he could see her arms shaking ever so slightly out of the corner of his eyes. "The Gigantic Assault Landing Ship; we are _so_ royally screwed…"

"No we're not," Takato shook his head; finally finding himself after the initial wave of terror had washed over him. "We've got two Mega-level capable Digimon; it's a two on one fight for crying out loud. Who cares if he made a show as he materialized, we can take him if we work together."

"Yeah, about that…" Rika began trailing off, so Renamon finished her sentence for her: "We cannot reach the Mega-level any more, Takato. It seems that whatever enabled us to Biomerge in the human world has since faded or been erased after we returned to the Digital World or possibly because puberty has altered your physical bodies to point we are no longer compatible."

"Say again…?" Takato asked, managing a weak chuckle as he shook his head. If Rika thought this joke was a funny way to get back him she really could've picked a better time and place. The stone cold look on her face quickly had his chuckles dying in his throat as the weight of the situation hit him when he realised it wasn't a joke.

"We're one Ultimate-level capable Digimon and one that's M.I.A," _This can't be happening. It just can't. _Takato felt his knees give out from underneath him leaving him on his rear looking up at Rika as if asking her what to do. _Even if Guilmon can still get to the Ultimate-level how are we supposed to win? There's no way two Ultimates can take that thing, not after what it did whilst just entering our world. _"Stay if you want, Renamon and I are going."

Takato barely heard her, too busy staring at a spot on the ground a few inches behind one of Renamon's paws. _It wasn't supposed to be like this… Why is this happening? Why would the Digital World give us back our Digimon and new Digivices if it was only going to throw an impossible battle at us as the first hurdle? What's the reason for this?_

His father always said that everything happened for a reason, so why was this happening?

It was in that moment of desperation that something happened that would change Takato forever; looking over his shoulder towards the screaming and noise the teenage Tamer saw that the GigaSeadramon had coiled itself around the cracked and twisted Rainbow Bridge before it began to tighten its hold. The bridge snapped clean in two before the shattered pieces went crashing down into the bay, taking untold human lives with them as cable wire went flying off in every direction whilst the monstrosity responsible simply floated back into the air – _laughing_.

Whilst his original stint as a Tamer had by no means been lengthy Takato had managed to meet many kinds of Digimon: some had be less than pleasant, cruel, sadistic, petty and misguided but he could only ever think of one Digimon he could describe as pure evil: IceDevimon. Or so he would have said until he saw Rainbow Bridge destroyed right in front of him.

"Takato," he turned around slowly to see that Guilmon had reappeared with the feral edge gone from his eyes and instead replaced by nothing more than simple sadness and _fear_. "Takato, I'm scared."

"Me too, boy," Takato nodded as he clambered to his feet, hands curling into fists as he stood up.

Cracking his neck, Tamer took one last look at Digimon before closing his eyes and pulling his goggles down. "Unfortunately right now we don't have time to be scared because we have a battle to fight – even if it's one we can't win. No; winning or losing doesn't matter any more, this is about protecting as many people as possible, we need to fight GigaSeadramon because no one else can and we need to buy the emergency services time to save as many lives as they can. So what do you say, Guilmon: up for one last fight?"

* * *

><p><strong>?<strong>

* * *

><p>Everything in Tokyo seemed to have ground to a halt, everyone stood at a standstill – too fixed on their radios, television or whatever media they were using to watch the events of Tokyo Bay live. The young man Takato had unconsciously dubbed the Red-Eyed Man was no different. He was watching the news feed through an app on his smartphone as he lounged on a bench in Shinjuku Central Park. <em>I really do love modern human technology, <em>he thought as the news chopper jerked to one side and the camera lost focus as the BioSphere cracked open like a giant egg.

So it was GigaSeadramon that had been elected to go first, the Red-Eyed Man thought as the camera finally managed to regain focus and capture what was going on, the glare of the sun crashing off of the massive golden plates. _Interesting… I was expecting the Olympians to be the ones to start the fireworks but it's good to see they're on tight leashes – will make what needs to come next all that much easier in the long run._

The Red-Eyed Man winced, although he couldn't help but grin when he saw GigaSeadramon coil around Rainbow Bridge and snap it in half like it was nothing. S_eeing a Digimon go demolition derby on Tokyo certainly takes me back, _he thought thinking back on memories of times long gone by: the days when decades of planning had only just begun to take shape as the opening moves of the long game were finally played.

Those were enjoyable times – the original Tamers and their war with one of Piedmon's renegade lieutenants, Myotismon and the invasion of Tokyo. _Not forgetting the incident with Diablomon and the rest of the Seven Generals that followed some years later, _the Tamer civil war had been a rather amusing by-product of his plans going off the rails but he had adapted as he'd done many times before.

Meanwhile the news feed had finally decided to show which of the Shinjuku Tamers had come out to play over – Taomon was attempting to run damage control and allow civilians to escape the battle. It was a humorous sight to behold form his position of safety. _It's fortunate for Makino these new Digivices don't operate using the Blue Card System and instead follow the older methods of Evolution._

Did that little red-headed punk honestly think her little fox could actually offer any resistance against GigaSeadramon?

GigaSeadramon didn't get his position as the right arm of Leviamon for nothing. The truth be told, even as Sakuyamon the troublesome little girl and her pet fox would have been brushed off like flies by the humongous member of the Seven Generals – well, that wasn't giving them enough credit but it sure as hell wouldn't be a winnable battle for an ordinary Mega-level Digimon, partnered with a Tamer or not.

In the end all Taomon could really do was create shield after shield as GigaSeadramon tried to brush the lesser Digimon off with its tail. Knowingly or not though the pair were playing GigaSeadramon's ego against him as the stupid sea snake never could resist a challenge in any way and was now more interested in destroying his new enemy instead of completing his mission and creating the first Targeting Spire.

"Now, _really_," The sultry tones of woman whose voice was like the sweetest honey murmured into his ear as arms snaked around his neck, chin resting on top of his head after a deep puff sent his fedora tumbling down his face and into his lap. "Is the news really more interesting than _me_?"

Looking up, awkward as it was, the Red-Eyed Man grinned with genuine pleasure as a beautiful woman looked back down at him: ivory skin and glistening black hair which usually covered one side of her face, ringlets framing her face as the rest fell in waves down to her lower back. But what really got him were her those heavy lidded eyes, lashes curling high and deep royal purple eyes that glistened underneath.

Sighing, he let himself relax back into her, resting his head against her voluptuous chest as she played with his hair. "Hello, my precious garden lily," the Red-Eyed Man grinned, his mood lifting as he gazed up into those impossibly purple eyes. "How are _you_ doing?" She just smirked down at him before blowing a large red bubble with the gum she'd been chewing on.

"Oh, you know, the _usual_. Finding new ways to keep my wandering hands busy," she teased him, smacking her lips before resuming the chewing of her gum.

The battle got boring _very_ quickly though and Damien was about to turn the whole thing off when a second challenger appeared – WarGrowlmon, all shiny and sleek looking with his new paint job and adjusted model that looked like something straight out of a weird cyberpunk show or mecha anime - blind siding the giant snake with a rather nice blast to the side of the face whilst GigaSeadramon had been distracted. _Finally, _he thought with a sinister grin as he suddenly regained interest, bring the screen closer in anticipation. _Time to see what you've got Matsuki – you better not disappoint me or there might be some nasty consequences…_

* * *

><p><strong>Takato Matsuki<strong>

* * *

><p>"Hey," Takato called as he skidded along the narrow corridor between a pair of large containers, shoes crunching on the gravel as a little dust flew up as he dropped down to the spot where Rika was crouched. Meanwhile, overhead, propelled by mighty thrusters a sleeker version of WarGrowlmon blasted GigaSeadramon from his flank with an <em>Atomic Blaster<em>.

"_Hey_? What kind of timing do you call this?" Rika snapped at him, a part of him having to resist the urge to the smile as he was suddenly reminded of the old days. In the end Takato said nothing, causing the short redhead to glare at him before jerking her head towards the battle that raged in the air above what was once the Rainbow Bridge. "We're getting killed out here. I think it's time we start fighting dirty."

"Any ideas?" Takato murmured after a long moment of silence. It wasn't like they had any real incentive to fight fair given how badly the scales were tipped against them and just how outright evil their opponent seemed to be but at the same time the goggle wearing Tamer had never enjoyed the idea of stooping to cheap tricks – he knew it was stupid to think like that but one of the reason he'd like the characters on the show was the fact they'd always overcome the odds through sheer will and determination without ever lowering themselves to the level of the current villain. _That or plot armour would kick in… _he added with a dry chuckle in his head, wishing more than anything he and Rika could find some plot armour of their own lying around the Tokyo Bay area.

"We need to find that things weak spot – there's got to be a gap or dent in that armour somewhere. Once we find it we hit it with everything we've got left." Rika shrugged, Takato just nodded along as he lacked a better solution to their current predicament.

Looking up, the young man did his best to take apart the giant sea serpent and visualise the creature as though it was made of basic shapes. It was a rather odd experience – as a developing artist and pointers from his cousin Takato had started to always try and see the things he drew as their most basic shape when he needed to get those first few lines down on the page but doing it with a Digimon in the midst of battle wasn't something he'd seen himself ever doing.

"The back of its head," Takato said to Rika, already working out how best to actually get in a good blow.

"The back of its head…?" Rika repeated, looking up at him as though he had gone mad – which granted he might have but if she was going to be snarky the least she could was give him an alternative that was better than his idea.

"Look at its head; it's the same as a MetalSeadramon but the armour is lager and not as curved, basic anatomy," Takato added on, seeing as he was still getting a disbelieving look whilst Taomon and WarGrowlmon danced around above them in the air as they attempted to dodge the swipes of their enemy's tail. "The way its eyes are placed means its field of vision is more restricted than most humans or other Digimon, I mean its peripheral vision must suck and it wouldn't see and attack coming from behind unless it actually turned its head to look in that direction."

"It's not like we have any other ideas…" Rika said in a murmur before shrugging one shoulder as she turned away only for WarGrowlmon to come crashing down fifteen feet in front of them – crushing shipping containers like rice balls as the entire shipyard was left shaking after the crash as chunks of broken steel and iron along with the items stored in the containers came tumbling back down from above as a huge clouds of dust flew up into the sky.

Takato didn't even need to think, grabbing the back of Rika's hoodie he pulled her to him and turned away from the crash site as he tried his best to shield the short redhead from the fallout. That brief moment in which the world seemed to slow down when the two Tamers pulled apart as the dust finally settled, Rika looking up at him with an expression he couldn't quite read - it wasn't like the movies or shows, her eyes weren't wide with gratitude or face bright red with mild embarrassment - she honestly looked more uncomfortable than anything even if a feeling of shock was running a close second.

There was a brief second were it seemed as though Rika might actually say something - anything would've done, even her scolding him over how she could take care of herself would've been better than the sheer awkwardness that had settled in but fate had other ideas. A sinking _crack _split the air as Taomon hit one of the containers above them, the sound ringing in Takato's ears as the beaten Ultimate slipped off the edge of the rusted red steel and plummeted back to earth, fading into back to Renamon before hitting the gravel a few feet from the crater that WarGrowlmon had created in the middle of the shipyard.

"How utterly pathetic," Takato could feel himself go ridged again as the sun suddenly vanished from sight – blocked out by the gigantic form of GigaSeadramon who hovered above the two Shinjuku Tamers as he gazed down at them. "Are you truly all the Tamers of this time have to offer me: two shoddy Ultimate-level Digimon? _Where are the remaining members of the Nine_? Do they fear me so much that they would not even dare to face me as I reduced their world to rubble in the name of my Lord and Master!?"

"Lord and Master? You mean that thing is someone's lackey?" Rika whispered against his chest, not even pretending she wasn't afraid any more as she tried to summon the courage to pull away and run to check on her Partner. Takato himself could barely stand, his knees banging together as he stared down the barrel of GigaSeadramon's mouth-cannon. _That would work… _he thought as an idea suddenly struck him just as Rika pulled herself free and dashed for Renamon: giant sea serpents be damned.

"You humans aren't even worth killing, and loading your Digimon would only make me weaker…" GigaSeadramon snorted, turning away and slithering through the sky back towards what used to be the middle of Rainbow Bridge as the blue mist began to gather and take shape once more.

"I've got a plan," Takato said as if they weren't about to die horribly but he needed to remain confident and have hope that the Digital World was still on their side and it would come through for them as it had in the past. Following Rika's example he ran from behind the shipping containers and made the mad dash over to where WarGrowlmon was struggling to pull himself back up. "WarGrowlmon," he panted as he reached the craters edge, shouting as loud as he could make himself heard "you got a few more _Atomic Blasters_in you?"

"I don't know Takato," WarGrowlmon groaned as he finally managed to stand up again, dust and dirt rolling off of his now cracked and dented armour as containers turned pancakes moaned under the weight of the huge Ultimate. "All he did was hit me with his tail and I can barely stand."

Takato winced, having hoped for better news but they still had one last attack at the very least - he hoped. "WarGrowlmon listen to me I think I know how we can at least cripple this guy." His Partner looked down at him, nodding slowly but even then his apprehension was clear as day. "Its mouth-cannon, if we can bait out an attack and then hit it before it can launch… well it should make one huge boom." _Hopefully not _too_ big…_

The pair didn't even get to put their plan into action however as a huge blast rung out across the bay. GigaSeadramon, who had returned to somehow shaping the thick digital mist into a solid shape roared in agony as he tumbled like a tangled assortment of wires into the depths of the bay as something came hurtling through the digital mist towards them.

Takato's heart just about stopped when the thing that had blown the monstrous Digimon out of the air crashed into the ground a few feet from him, rolling along the beaten tarmac before finally coming up to stand tall in front of him – red scarf flapping in the wind and sun reflecting of the sheen of the white helm as he toward over human by several feet.

"Have no fear, _Justimon_ is here!" _Ryo… _Takato just stare on in horror as Justimon looked down at him, shifting his gaze for a moment to see Rika still helping a beaten and battered Renamon back to her feet. "Damn, you guys have sure looked better, huh?"

"That's _it_!?" Rika screamed from behind him and Takato couldn't help but agree. "You disappear off the face of the earth _again_ - without telling anyone - get all of us dragged in for questioning over your whereabouts by the damned government and never made an effort to let us know where you were and you can somehow Biomerge and we can't and all you have to say is _we've looked better_? What the actual _hell_ Akiyama?"

"Wait, dial it back up there for a second spitfire so I can follow this time," Justimon said, holding up both hands in mock surrender though at the same time he sounded worried. "What do you mean you can't Biomerge? I guess that explains why you were stupid enough to try and take on GigaSeadramon with a pair of Ultimates if nothing else…"

"_Ryo Akiyama_!" Of course the conversation would be short lived, Takato thought as he saw the surface of the bay break as the giant sea serpent rose from the depths bellow, sending waves off in every direction. Water dripped from perfect, unscratched golden armour which glimmered in the sunlight, GigaSeadramon, though still partially submerged, managed to rise high enough that his bulky form hid the sun from the sky and caught the rag-tag group of Tamers and Digimon in his shadow. "At long last we meet again, my old enemy!"

"Looks like you've gone and gotten yourself an updated since last I saw you, tin-can." Justimon threw back as he gestured for the other Tamers to get behind him. GigaSeadramon just laughed heartily, and in that moment, if only for a second Takato saw Justimon's knees shake. Even Ryo was clearly terrified of this monstrosity.

"I assure you I am not the only one," GigaSeadramon boomed as though suddenly talking through a megaphone; Takato had to throw his hands over his ears so as not to be deafened. "And I can also assure you, I am but the first of many. This is _our_ world now."

"Only once you take it from my cold dead hands, you bastard!" Justimon said, yelling as he gestured as the huge serpent before taking a threatening step forward in an attempt to seem more confident. "We kicked your collective asses once and we'll damn sure do it again no matter how shiny or new you might now look. So come at me, I'm ready for whatever new tricks Leviamon taught you this time."

GigaSeadramon just laughed.

"_You_? The Nine are broken Ryo Akiyama, the Legendary General is _dead_ and gone and you stand divided and ill experienced for the war that has come to your doorstep," though his voice had returned to bearable levels, GigaSeadramon just seemed get more smug with each passing exchange. "You think a handful of pathetic new recruits will save you from the Sovereigns, let alone my Masters?

"You were a fool to challenge me alone, Akiyama. Now," _I've got it all wrong… _Takato realised as he watched how GigaSeadramon's words stab at Justimon, who looked visibly shaken by whatever it all meant in context. Ryo Akiyama wasn't the first of what effectively became known as the Shinjuku Tamers – he was one of the Forerunners Fancy Suit had harped on about. Ryo was one of the original nine Tamers. "Vanish into nothingness, foolish humans!"

"Now WarGrowlmon…!" Takato shouted on seeing his chance – GigaSeadramon was planning to wipe them out with a blast from his mouth cannon – which meant he still had a shot to try and put his plan into action. _This is it…! All or nothing, _Takato screamed inside as hope surged through him as he prayed this worked with everything he had. Above him his partner roared in understanding as he put everything he had left into one last Atomic Blaster before letting it loose.

The attack was just a few seconds too late. Their enemy had fired his own attack at a much faster rate that either Takato or WarGrowlmon had expected – the bay shaking with the announcement of _Giga Sea Destroyer_ before the _Atomic Blaster_ shot met the attack head on; the sea green energy torpedo and thick red laser connected with a flash and much like Takato guessed, what followed was one of the largest explosions he'd ever seen as the attacks combine into one and the world went white.

* * *

><p><strong>?<strong>

* * *

><p>Somewhere deep in the depths of the Digital World something in the air had shifted and everything had gone deathly quite. Sighing, a lone human shifted, trying to better adjust to the weight of his backpack in which his Partner was sleeping off their latest battle. The tattered ends of his heavy jacket flapping in the sudden breeze as the light of a non-existent sun caught the lens of his dark glass.<p>

Turning to look over his shoulder, up at the strange sky above him he frowned when he saw it darkening and crackle and rumble as it sparked. _The invasion has started,_ he realised knowing it could only mean one a heavy heart he turned away again and carried on his way, the human world had long since become a secondary priority to him, there were greater enemies that needed dealing with before he could turn his attention to place he once called home. _Wait for me, guys, _he thought as he silently clutched something that hung around his neck under his coat and marched off into the desert to wherever his mission would take him next.


	5. A Little Less Conversation

_**Degrees of Succession**_

* * *

><p><strong>V<strong>

* * *

><p><em>A little less conversation, a little more action please<em>  
><em>All this aggravation ain't satisfactioning me<em>  
><em>A little more bite and a little less bark<em>  
><em>A little less fight and a little more spark<em>  
><em>Close your mouth and open up your heart and baby satisfy me<em>  
><em>Satisfy me baby<em>

_A Little Less Conversation - _Elvis Presley

* * *

><p><strong>July Eighteenth<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Takato Matsuki<strong>

It might have been due to the fact he was floating in a huge, endless abyss of white, but Takato was pretty sure something strange (even by standards of a Tamer) was going on; give the last thing he remembered was a rather large explosion then nothing. His stomach jumped a little when the sensation of touching something solid underfoot ran through him, pale golden _Tron_-like lights spider webbed their way out from under his feet in every direction every time he moved one of his feet.

"Defiantly not normal," he muttered to himself in confusion as the abyss suddenly shifted from brightest white to pitch black as the golden lights vanished into the distances.

"Hello again, Mr. Matsuki. It had been many human years, has it not?" an eerily familiar voice said from behind him. Looking over his shoulder the young Tamer almost did a double take in shock at what he saw: a short, twelve year old girl stood behind him dressed in a gothic-style dress that must have been a few years out of date even for the most hardcore goth, her platinum blonde hair pulled into twin tails which he could barely see again her pale skin in the suddenly poor light.

"Alice McCoy…?" Takato asked in disbelief as he stared at the girl who had, five years ago, given Rika, Jen and himself the power to Biomerge in the human world. _This doesn't make sense. This _isn't _possible, _he remembered as a conversation he had with Shibumi shortly before Hypnos' termination came back to him.

"Yes, and at the same time no," Alice said in a monotone way that was borderline robotic in delivery, rather like the little girl he remembered. "No, I am not the real Alice McCoy – who died some time before you ever became a Tamer – but yes I am also the same Alice McCoy you met that fateful day five years ago."

"Say what?" Takato asked, making a face as his head went to one side much like Guilmon's would have, talk about shared habits, he thought after realising what he'd done. "You never did make much sense. Shibumi told me about Alice after I mentioned you to him, y'know, the real one: said she was killed in a car crash with her mother. Back in _nineteen ninety six._"

Alice gave a sad smile, shaking her head at him as she began to bounce up and down on the balls of her feet as though nervous under his accusing look. "I apologise for taking the form I have, but my time is short and I must impart much to you before my presences is noted."

Takato didn't say anything back, figuring it wouldn't do him any good one way or the other. "That day I appeared to you and your friends to assist you against the D-Reaper I needed to take a form other than my usual avatar so as to avoid being recognised should one of your forerunners cross my path whilst I completed my mission."

"You mean Ryo, right?" Alice nodded, snapping her fingers and summoning nine white screens no bigger than average monitor into the empty space above her head. After a moment, two of the screens dimmed and a red cross was stamped across the screen with the word _deceased _appearing in slight black letters bellow whilst all the others remained white besides one; which instead showed a picture of a fourteen year old Ryo Akiyama.

"Ryo Akiyama was one of the first nine Tamers to defend the Digital World from those that sought to conquer it," Takato nodded along, he'd already worked out that much on his own thanks to GigaSeadramon's ramblings after Ryo had arrived. "Circumstances prevented me from appearing as my default avatar because had Ryo seen me in that form the damage to the time-line would have been significant and in order to offer you some familiarity in this moment I opted to once again take Alice McCoy's appearance."

Takato just stared at Alice with an expression of utter confusion as he felt his own jaw hanging open. _Damage to the time-line…? What the heck? _The blonde girl(?) before him just shook her head when she saw his face, murmuring about how such things could wait for another time.

"To the point: I am here to help you so that you might help me,"

"Help with _what_, exactly?"

"The Digital World is dying, Mr. Matsuki." Alice said as though she was commenting on the weather they were having of late. Takato just stared back in horror, his voice having abandoned him. "In order for this to make any sense I must first give you a brief history lesson but I only have time to give you the cliff note version I'm afraid – you see, originally the Digital World was nothing like the one you visited when you came to rescue the creature known as Calumon from the clutches of the Sovereigns.

"Truthfully there were some similarities to how it is now but there was actually once a great deal of fact in the Digimon show when compared to its depiction of the Digital World as a plane of existence," Alice explained as nine small screens split down the middle and moved to one side, making way for a singular, much larger screen that was slowly cycling through a few dozen images of what the Digital was once like and aside from the familiar, strange looking sky everything looked like it was taken from a screenshot of the Digimon show.

"After the original nine Tamers succeeded in defeating Myotismon, a rouge lieutenant of a Digimon known as Piedmon, who had attempted to conquer the human world after it became clear he would never have the power needed to usurp his master, they returned to the Digital World to deal with a group called the Olympus Twelve who had taken the chance caused by recent chaos to seize control of the Digital World for themselves."

"So the Dark Masters don't actually exist?" Takato asked, thinking back on how the four Mega-level Digimon were the enemies face by the heroes in the show after the battle in the human world.

"The Dark Masters, as you know them, do exist," the blond replied with a shake of her head. Snapping her fingers again the slideshow of the Digital World was replaced by the profile of seven Digimon; three of which were blacked out. "The Dark Masters however are in reality known as the Circle of Thorns, or the Seven Supreme Generals. They are each the right hand of one of the the Seven Great Demon Lords and the commanders of their armies. Piedmon is the strongest and leader of the Circle, as well as the general and most trusted subordinate of the Demon Lord Daemon, for example.

"Though they never fought them during their original visit to the Digital World the first Tamers did learn of the four that would appear in the show under the name Dark Masters," Alice said as the profile of the mad looking Piedmon faded and was replaced by one of Pinochimon who was also soon replaced by MetalSeadramon and finally Machindramon before the screen went blank. "The first Tamers would face the group some years later though that isn't relevant to this conversation,"

"Not relevant? One of them just blew the Rainbow Bridge to Kingdom Come!" Takato snapped before taking an aggressive step forward, "and what about these Olympus Twelve? Are they the same Olympians the Red-Eyed Man was talking about?"

"Any questions you have about the Circle of Thorns you can ask of your forerunners when the time is right," Alice said as she dismissed his outburst, shaking her head. "The Olympus Twelve and the Olympians of which the man you so aptly call the Red-Eyed Man told you are _not_ the same group, as you will learn in due time I suspect. Now, we must get back on topic."

Takato growled, but backed down when he realised that the thing that looked like Alice McCoy _did_ have a point. So he nodded, we she stated yet again that time was of the essence.

"After the events in which Myotismon invaded Tokyo and following the Tamers return from the Digital World after defeating the Olympus Twelve the Japanese Government, after much encouragement, founded a organisation with the purpose of monitoring and dealing with Digimon should they ever become a threat again."

"Hypnos,"

"Indeed," Alice nodded, "however the technology Hypnos employed was fundamentally flawed and caused irreversible damage to the barriers that protected the Digital World from the internet. You see, Mr. Matsuki the internet has always been key to the development of the Digital World, but the flow of data and its assimilation was always carefully monitored and controlled by the Sovereigns.

"When the damage was done, date flowed without end and caused the Digital World to fracture and reformat. It splintered in a desperate attempt to protect itself and create multiple sources to which direct the massive amount of content flooding in from the internet. This was how the Digital World _you_ are familiar with came to be; it's also how the D-Reaper was awakened from its long slumber."

Takato didn't know what to say, to busy wondering if everything he thought he knew about Digimon and the Digital World was completely wrong. It sure seemed that way.

"Shortly after this a Digimon known as Diablomon used the damaged barriers to its advantage and dragged several of the first Tamers back into the Digital World. What followed afterwards is known as the Tamer Civil War – please do not ask me of this as there is not enough time to begin cover it.

"The Civil War led into the battle against the Circle and the Demon Lords and unlike before the first Tamers did not emerge triumphant, they barely escaped with their lives. Or at least most of them," Alice added, before the screen floating behind her lit up again and he saw an image of himself, aged twelve from the day he discovered the blue card that changed his life. "The fallout might not have seen the Demon Lords truly defeated but it left them all significantly crippled in some means or another aside from Daemon who later lost much of his own forces to D-Reaper though he quickly realised his folly and retreated inward to recover and rebuild. This left the D-Reaper with little opposition and your own story began."

"Okay, I think a few things make a little more sense now. But what does this have to do with anything going on _right now_? You said the Digital World was dying!" Takato said as he ruffled his hair, desperate to try and wrap his head around everything that had happened to him that day.

"I'm getting to that," Alice chided him, frowning in disapproval in a way that would have made Miss Asaji proud. "The information overload caused by the internet would have eventually killed the Digital World, although it would have taken decades, if not centuries before final collapse occured. However the D-Reaper appeared, and the damage it caused escalated the speed of degradation and collapse, leaving the Digital World with a decade or two at most.

"Recently a third catalyst has sped up the Digital World's demise even further leaving us with _weeks_ at most." _This can't be happening…_ "The X-Antibody is a gene created by the Demon Lord Barbamon as a steroid for his troops in the war against the Sovereigns which could finally resume with the defeat of the D-Reaper. Of course, such things never go according to plan.

"The Demon Lord could no control the Antibody he had created and it spread like wild fire across the Digital World; infecting countless Digimon. These Digimon quickly lost their minds, though gained unimaginable power for a brief period of time before the virus destroyed their bodies from the inside out. The result has left the Demon Lords and the Sovereigns fighting not for control of the Digital World, but the _human_ one."

"The Digital World can't be saved so they're fighting over which of them gets to conquer ours instead!?" Takato cried before taking a step back and landing on his rear. He'd always thought of the Sovereigns as benevolent beings with the interests of both worlds at heart, even if Zhaquimon wasn't very agreeable – putting it kindly. "That's what GigaSeadramon meant,"

"Yes," Alice nodded, "what neither side realises is that the Digital World _can still be saved_." Takato's head snapped up, a little taken aback but the grin Alice wore. It made her look more creepy than anything else "I have created a special device called the Noah, capable of storing the information of thousands of Digimon in it and sheltering them during a complete system reset."

"You want us to go in and do the the system reset for you, don't you…?"

"You are correct," the blond nodded as the screen shifted to an image of a temple again. "Upon arriving in the Digital World you must find this temple – it's located in the desert level and my subordinate can fully explain the details to you when you get there. But first we must save you world, or at least stem the tide of encroaching Digimon"

"And how am I supposed to do any of this when I can't even Biomerge anymore?" Takato asked as he stood up again, making a wide gesture with one arm as the weight of two worlds was suddenly placed on his shoulders.

"That is why I am here," Alice assured him as the larger screen faded and the nine smaller ones resumed their original places and each displayed a symbol recognised.

"The crests from the show?" he asked feeling a little more than perplexed, looking from the screens to not-Alice the blond nodded.

"The crests as you call them are one of the facets of the show that finds its existence in reality," the young girl explained as she glanced up over her shoulder at some of the symbols. "However most are a little different than in the show, the basic idea behind them seems to be the same for the most part. The crests were originally blank when given to the original Tamers and were imprinted with a particular aspect when each Tamer tapped into the crests for the first time by preforming a selfless act, pure of heart founded on aspect that defined the Tamer the best.

"Courage, Friendship, Knowledge…" Takato murmured, naming a few of the crests off of the top of his head.

"Valour, Loyalty and Wisdom," Alice corrected him with a slight smile, "the ideologies form the show needed the crests to be more vague in nature so that they were easier to fulfil whilst in reality their activation condition were always rather strenuous to achieve. Moving on, you must have realised now that I'm telling you all this for a reason."

"The amplification given by the crest power is what allows the original Tamers to Biomerge, even in the real world, right? It's why Ryo never needed your help to Biomerge, he'd tapped into a crest some time before even meeting us, right?" Takato guessed as he looked over the symbols, blinking for a moment when a tenth eventually joined the group. "Ten?"

"You are right, and yes there were in fact ten" the blond girl said, tucking her hands behind her back and turning away from him. "The original nine were eventually joined by a tenth comrade, although the group kept the moniker of The Nine. But back to the point at hand: the crests are indeed what allows the original Tamers to perform a true Biomerge.

"You see, Mr. Matsuki what you have experience is a mock, or at least lesser version of Biomerging." Alice said as the ten screens suddenly shook before transforming back into one larger screen which flashed through glimpses of the Shinjuku's exploits when achieving Biomerge for the first time. "You each tapped into one of the Crests during your initial Biomerge but still lacked a true crest when you returned to the human world meaning I had to grant you a false crest so to speak so you could fight the D-Reaper."

"False crest?"

"Think of it a hotfix, meant to grant you the ability to achieve a low level Biomerge that would've lasted a few days at most. It allowed you to achieve the bare minimum sync-rate needed to Biomerge."

"Sync-rate? Are we _Neon Genesis Evangelion_ now?" Takato joked, Alice looked unimpressed. "Okay then…"

"Now is not the time for jokes, Mr. Matsuki." _Yeah, you reaction said that much, _"My hotfix allowed you to achieve a borderline forty percent sync rate with your Partner, roughly the same as you managed on your own in the Digital World. The crest amplifies your bond with your Partner and will let you achieve a greatly increased sync-rate and reach the level of power you will need to fight this war."

"Okay, so how do I get one?"

"I will supply you with a brief hotfix that should see you through to the end of your current battle with GigaSeadramon. Unfortunately I only have the power to do this once and for only one of you despite how costly it is for me to step in this early," Alice explained as Takato's Digivice flashed and bleeped, "From this point on you will be on your own. It is up to you and the other four Tamers that will fight this war alongside you as the new crest holders to find the necessary qualities inside yourselves and achieve a true Biomergance with your Partners."

"Wait, so only _five_ of us can fight this war? Who are the others?"

"The Nine will guide you, without a doubt and they will help you secure your world but when the battle moves to the Digital Plane it will be up to you, the new crest holders, to finish this fight once and for all." Alice shrugged, dodging his question about just who else would fight alongside him before adding: "Your task is enormous and for that I profoundly sorry: each of you must bare two crests compared to the one of your forerunners but I know you have what it takes to accomplish this."

"What about all the other questions I have…!?" Takato demanded, sounding desperate even to his own ears as the screens behind Alice vanished the girl herself began to fade.

"The Red-Eyed Man has already put you on the path of where you need to go," Takato just looked at her like she was mad, she'd just told him how dangerous he was just a few minutes earlier, "In that much you can trust him. But my time is up; I have lingered far too long and others will be aware that I have overstepped my bounds to assist you and try to take advantage of that whilst I am weakened."

"But _who_ is she: the woman who the Red-Eyed Man gave the address for?" Alice just smiled, a name escaping her lips before finally fading from sight and the world fade back to white.

* * *

><p>When Takato opened his eyes again a second later, he knew instantly something was different – even by the standards of being Biomerged. Five long years ago when he and Guilmon had Biomerged he had been suspended in a sphere of data, naked as the day he was born and whilst he was certainly naked in the classic sense the data sphere had shrunk and was now moulded more to fit him like a skin-tight bodysuit that he had yet to fully grown into.<p>

After a moment he could see the faint shape, blurry and barely visible he could make out the outline of a large silver gauntlet hovering over his own hand and when he clenched his fist it copied his movements. _This is even weirder than the five years ago._

'_It's because our sync-rate is much higher now than it was five years ago,_' a voice in his head responded and it took Takato a moment to realise it was Guilmon, if slightly different than usual: his Partner sounded like an odd combination of both of their normal voices with the pitch drastically lowered.

_Where you there for that conversation too, Guilmon?_

'_No_,' the saurian Digimon admitted, before adding, '_but now I remember it as though I was - because you remember it and now we're linked on a deeper level than ever before_.' Takato had to resist the urge to make a comment about how dirty the last part sounded seeing as Kazu wasn't around to do it, only he managed to bite his tongue. Guilmon just chuckled and Takato realised that even his inner most thoughts were privy to Guilmon now whereas before at least he could guard some thoughts from his Partner during their mergers.

_Good to know, _Guilmon agreed. _Jeez this really _is_ weirder than last time, _again Guilmon conquered with him.

Shaking his head, Takato stood up from the crouched position he'd been in and rose to his full height. It was odd, suddenly he found himself being a good few feet taller than he was used to, a tattered crimson mantel billowing out behind him as more blurred shapes began to form around the strange data suit. He was Dukemon again; or at least a more stylised looking Dukemon with his lance made of humming energy and more ridges and curves to his armour and a more decorated shield. _This is awesome._

"How...?" Looking over his shoulder, armour creaking as he did, Dukemon looked at Rika who was still supporting an equally shocked Renamon. He wanted to say something, to explain what the hell had just happened to him but how the hell was he supposed to do that? One way or the other fate didn't think now was the time, as his attention was quickly brought back to the reason for their entire situation.

"Do you not know how to die, Dukemon?" GigaSeadramon demanded as he cut away the smoke with a wave of his tail, the humongous Mega-level didn't even looked scratch from the blast the previous explosion had caused. _This is not going to be fun at all, _"How many times must Piedmon kill you before you stay dead?" He didn't understand it, but the very name Piedmon both the human and digital sides of Dukemon felt impossible rage and hate towards the clown neither of them had ever actually met.

"Good to see you again, Dukemon," Justimon murmured as he emerged from the smoke cloud to stand at his side. Dukemon just nodded back, hefting his shield up as he readied his lance for battle.

"Promise me something, Ryo," Dukemon said in a voice more akin to the one Guilmon had used to converse with Takato after their merger.

"Don't expect any miracles," Justimon shrugged, but he knew at that moment it was merely Ryo talking to him.

"When this is over, I want you to take me to see her so we can get some answers." Dukemon replied in a whisper as look to one side at Justimon as GigaSeadramon howled in fury over the fact both his enemies were ignoring him.

"Who exactly is _her_? And answers to what?"

"Hikari Yagami," Justimon stiffened, a half whispered _how _passing between the pair of Mega-levels, "I think it's about time you told us the whole story and a weirdo in a hat and suit with red eyes tells me she's the only one that will give us _real_ answers about the original Tamers." After a moment the older of the pair nodded stiffly in agreement, adding in a _if _for good measure. "Good, now lets skin this snake,"

"You may try, Tamer," GigaSeadramon snarled as the digital mist began to gather once more, "but all that you will find here is _death_."


	6. Smoking Snakes

_**Degrees of Succession**_

* * *

><p><strong>VI<strong>

* * *

><p><em>Three men stood strong, and they held out for long<em>  
><em>Going into the fight, to their death that awaits<em>  
><em>Crazy or brave, will it end in the grave?<em>  
><em>As they're giving their lives<em>  
><em>As their honour dictates<em>

_Smoking Snakes_ - Sabaton

* * *

><p><strong>July Eighteenth<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Mitsuo Yamaki<strong>

The entire room had gone silent as the grave; or maybe it was just that he was in shock – people were still running around wildly, a lullaby of static and wailing sirens echoed off in some far away land but he couldn't really hear any of it. A part of Yamaki had always assumed that when this day arrived he'd be overwhelmed by a sense of smug triumph, then he'd met a rather odd bunch of kids who had changed his outlook on life and nothing was ever the same again. Five years later he found himself standing in a doorway after being shook violently awake (having worked all night) only to be greeted by a nightmare he'd once been convinced was all but inevitable.

Tokyo Bay had been turned into a war zone and the Rainbow Bridge looked like something out of a piece of post-apocalypse science fiction. What made it all the worse was that the last round of attacks, the collision of WarGrowlmon's and GigaSeadramon's (which he'd found out thanks to Izumi and his seemingly limitless Digimon database) had caused them to loose picture of the battle and left nothing but harsh static on the large monitor which everyone had been so fixated on a moment before.

"Where is my damn feed!?" A voice further inside the room that they had all dubbed Ground Zero bellowed as Yamaki held his ground, not caring as people barraged past him as everything descended into greater chaos. _Even now, those kids are still covering our asses, _he mused, thinking back on how they'd all looked so lost and defeated when he'd announced Hypnos' termination to them all those years ago. He'd been furious – outraged that after all the kids had done for them, for the government, the city (if not the world) that they'd been cast aside like used trash.

At the time Yamaki didn't know that Hypnos' termination was simply to pave the way for something much larger and grander in scope.

The Purgatory Institute was an international group funded directly by the United Nations, founded with the intent of re-establishing contact with the Digital World and studying Digimon and the world they lived in with minimal direct contact and interference. He'd refused at first, Yamaki had truthfully been more than happy to put everything Digimon related behind him and at long last move on with his life after so many years of seething anger and lusting after petty revenge for a crime that was out of anyone's control. He'd been so ready to leave it all behind, to start a new life with Reika but his damn sense of justice wouldn't let him.

So, when they had approached him one last time Yamaki had agreed and sold his soul to devil on the condition that he be allowed to select his own team and run his own division within Purgatory with the expressed intent of finding new Tamers, training them and helping to guard the boarders between worlds. He was also going to make sure those kids who had once been his enemies got their Digimon back: it was the least he could do for them after all the crap he put them through.

Four years later and here he was, watching static that had not that long ago been the image of two of those brats fighting off the most powerful Digimon on record to ever successfully Biomerge. Yamaki didn't want to imagine how many Digimon might have done much worse if they could actually Biomerge, but their strength made it almost impossible due to the insane level of power needed to pull it off. _So how did GigaSeadramon manage to do out in the middle of Tokyo Bay of all places?_

"That was Rika and Takato, wasn't it?" Reika murmured from just behind him, discreetly slipping her hand into his. Yamaki just nodded unsure of just exactly what he was supposed to say. Inside Ground Zero the head of the Tamer Division of Kyoto's (and Japan's by extension) Purgatory branch and Yamaki's direct superior was bellowing at Janyu Wong about something or other, before demanding someone turn the alarms off.

_Guess those kids managed find a way to get their Digimon back all on their own,_ he felt a pang of guilt and shame; he couldn't do something as simple as get their Digimon back for them. But his thoughts were scattered when his superior stomped over to him, gesturing wildly towards the still empty monitor as his did so.

"Yamaki, just what the hell is going on out there?" Rentaro Satsuma demanded, his hair all over the place as his tie hung sloppy around his neck, going of the state of his shirt and slacks Satsuma, much like Yamaki himself, had not been home in several days as they worked tirelessly to hunt down the Olympians before they could start the next Tamer Civil War – or do far worse.

Yamaki just gave a habitual flick of his lighter with his free hand, the soft _click_ of the lid flicking opening and closing helped him sooth his nerves. Reika gave his hand a tight squeeze and he found himself without further need to play with his lighter.

"It's a declaration of war," the room stopped, everyone turned as one to look at the young man who had dared to speak up. A short man with hedgehog-style dirty red hair stood at the centre of everyone's gaze, his jeans worn and black flannel shirt stained with split coffee which had leaked through and stained his orange long-sleeved t-shirt, a tablet in his hand and open at something he wanted Satsuma to look at. " I'm certain the thing the mist was beginning to transform into was some sort of variant or offshoot of Spencer Damon's Targeting Spire."

"How the hell would GigaSeadramon get a hold of something as heavily guarded as that?" Reika asked, sounding panicked as everyone in the room understood the implication of what such a thing appearing in the middle of Tokyo Bay meant.

Invasion.

"Tartarus must have infiltrated us even further than we original suspected," Yamaki murmured as he let go of Reika's hand so he could remove his glances and massage the bridge of his nose. "We _still_ might not have gotten them all. If they had it then the Olympians had it, which means half the Digital World probably knows about the Odyssey Gate program now."

"I suspect you're not wrong, Mr. Yamaki," Kushiro Izumi, one of the original nine Tamers said as he flickered through a few pages on the tablet to more schematics on the control panel for the Odyssey Gate. "A total of four Targeting Spires is needed plus the launch pad itself, meaning this is only the first of _four_ major attacks at the very minimum. Rest assured that if the Demon Lords are the ones who have the gate design, which is all but assured with GigaSeadramon's appearance then each of the attacks will see another one of the other Generals arrive in Tokyo - each probably worse than the one that came before."

"First there will be a herald who speaks of the coming conquests," Spencer Damon said from his seat over at one of the terminals set against the far wall. Now everyone was looking at the American man who looked a little lost as he realised that something he'd designed to help connect two worlds would now possibly destroy both. "We have our own, albeit rather odd, Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Or Horsemon I would think," he gave a lifeless chuckle before hiding his face in his hands as his laughter built.

"There will be no Apocalypse whilst I'm in charge," Satsuma barked as he pulled a nearby chair to himself and stood atop it, yelling for everyone to hear. "The governments of the world have put their faith in all of us; it's our job , first and foremost, to protect this world so let's at least start pretending we know what we're doing and take control of the situation! Everyone, you know your assignments in this scenario so stop standing around gawking and get to it!

"Damon," Satsuma added stepping down off the chair as the room burst into movement, pointing at the American man, "you and Izumi are coming with me to Shinjuku. In the mean time I want you working on projections as to when and where the next one of these spires is going to come out; give me everything you can no matter how insignificant it might seem. Yamaki,"

"Total Recall," Yamaki nodded with a sense of dread rising in his gut. _Time to go home, then, _Satsuma just nodded. If someone, the Demon Lords going off of Izumi's information had just declared war with the intent of a full invasion then Purgatory was going to need every last solider it could find - even if they hadn't fought in five years.

But in the moment he turned away from the buzzing screen full of static, footage returned and the entire room stopped a second time. _Dukemon, _the blond thought as he recognised the shinning knight now stood alongside Justimon. _Hang in there kids,_ he thought with a wince as GigaSeadramon twisted on screen, turning to glare at the news-copter recording the battle before blasting it from the sky with a missile fired from its mouth-canon like a fly caught under the swing of a rolled up newspaper.

_If there's a god out there, _Yamaki closed his eyes, slipping his sunglasses back on before he finally pulled himself away from Ground Zero as it plummeted into chaos once more, _I sure hope he realises those kids need all the help they can get. _Admittedly he could do with some luck of his own right about then, the phone calls that he now needed to make would be by no means pleasant though neither would any part of the next few days be enjoyable.

But when was war ever enjoyable?

* * *

><p><strong>Dukemon (Takato MatsukiGuilmon)**

* * *

><p>The world was spinning and Dukemon was flying through the air.<p>

In a moment of realisation Dukemon crashed helm first into the dirt as Aegis went bouncing off into the distance and Gram slipped from his grasp, the light flickering out and instead replaced by cold steel: GigaSeadramon had blasted the news-copter out of the sky before turning on them. The Royal Knight had been so taken aback by the leviathan's callous attack that he'd been frozen, unable to bring himself to move when the serpent had attack him and Justimon almost instantly afterwards.

Shaking his head, the Holy Knight pushed himself onto all fours as Rika came skidding over to him, a little dust cloud rising as she came to a stop, barking orders at him all the while; "What the hell was that? Get back up and get your ass into gear Takato!"

It was a weird sensation that pushing himself up onto his knees he still somehow managed to tower over Rika, the short redhead was all of five foot compared to the borderline ten that Dukemon must have been. Yet with fire in her eyes the older Tamer did the best she could to grab a piece of armour and yanked with all her might the dazed and limp Royal Knight down to her level, prompting him to throw out a hand to catch himself.

"Damn it, Takato now is not the time – get off of your ass and fight!"

Dukemon just stared back at Rika, the sounds of battle taking place over the bay nothing but background noise. Hanging his head for a moment he let the world fade away before he gave the violet-eyed Tamer one last glance. Nodding wordlessly, he clamber back onto shaky legs and threw up one arm and Aegis came flying back into hand with a low _whoosh_.

"Sorry,"

"You better be," Rika said angrily as she gave him one last glare as Dukemon flicked his wrist and summoned Gram back to him in a ripple of light and hefted Aegis up in anticipation.

"Not for that," Dukemon admitted shamefully as he cast a quick glance over the container which Renamon lay slumped against, holding onto one side as her chest slowly rose and fell, her usually well-kept fur stained a dirty red.

"Don't you dare," Rika hissed as she refused to look him in the eye. "After the shit you pulled you don't even get the right to be sorry. Things between us _don't_ get fixed with a few little words like _sorry_ – we have a duty to do right now and I'll tolerate you because the alternative isn't exactly appealing but you and I are done as far as I'm concerned. Understand?"

He didn't say anything in return – there was nothing to say after that. All Dukemon could do was nod weakly and turn with a swish of his tattered mantel and begin the short sprint to the edge of the shipyard.

_Grani sure would be great right about now, _the part of Dukemon that was Takato thought as he skidded to a stop and looked up to see Justimon swirling and dancing through the air as he attempted to avoid being blown out of the sky by the barrage of missiles GigaSeadramon had launched from his back. _Here goes nothing, _he thought, thrusting Gram forth as a beam of lightning burst out of the tip before expanding outwards as the Royal Knight swung the lance in a wide arc and erased the missiles like flies.

"You sure took your sweet time," Justimon called from on high and Dukemon merely waved Gram at him, to which he received a chuckle. "Got any sort of plan?"

"I was kind hoping you might have one,"

"Winging it, huh? This seems more familiar that it should," Justimon said with a shake of his head as he looked back to GigaSeadramon who was, for some odd reason, maintaining his position and the mist was once again taking shape in the gap where the Rainbow Bridge had been. "What the hell is he waiting for?"

"Maybe those few hits we've gotten in have done more damage than we thought?" Dukemon said as he gestured towards the now towering, obelisk shaped mist cloud. "There's no way all of the data from the sphere is needed to make whatever that is, the water must be overflowing with data without anywhere to go."

"Unless he's pulling on that spare data to heal himself any time we land a good hit," Justimon said and though he couldn't physically do it, Dukemon could hear the smile in his voice – in Ryo's voice. "We need to get him in the air and away from the water then, but how?"

"On it," Dukemon announced as he plunged Gram into the waters of the bay from his perch on the shore just as GigaSeadramon seemed to have realised they'd caught onto his gimmick. Powering more power than he probably should have, the Royal Knight set the bay water alight with a_ Lightning Joust_ that had the water bubbling and frothing and GigaSeadramon bellowing in rage as he writhed in pain.

"Fresh sushi, order up!" Justimon quipped before charging forward in a sudden burst of speed, his right arm transforming as he went. Although as a blade of energy shot out of Justimon's Critical Arm GigaSeadramon suddenly stopped his screaming and twisted, leaving nothing but empty air to be cut before striking like a venomous snake, coiling around Justimon and diving into the bay.

_Aww…_nuts_! _Of course GigaSeadrmon could tolerate a little hot water, Dukemon thought on the verge of panicking as both the giant leviathan and his friend vanished below the surface. Looking down at the depths he groaned; _This is beyond stupid, _he knew but he had little other choice but to leap from his perch on the bay's edge and jump into the still bubbling water after them.

As expected, GigaSeadramon was waiting for him; Dukemon had hoped his plan would work and they wouldn't have to fight the giant serpent in his element of choice but luck had never really favoured him. Being a Digimon was handy as it meant his need for air wasn't as dire in this form, but it by no means meant he was a swift swimmer (he was adored in huge, not to mention heavy, plate-like armour) or that he wouldn't need air eventually. Like a giant rock the knight plummeted to the bottom of the bay, only to be showered in a fresh spray of giant missiles.

He blocked some, but the effort it had taken to lift Aegis and block as many as possible in time was like Takato trying to lift Guilmon one handed – it went horribly. He was blasted from the bottom of the bay and spun through the dark depths and crashed into the cracked wall of the bay, Justimon crashing into him soon after him; GigaSeadramon had unsurprisingly good aim given he was giant mechanical leviathan warship.

"You alright?" Justimon asked as he floated next to Dukemon's downed form. Shaking himself off as best he could, the Royal Knight clambered back to his feet and nodded. _How are we supposed to fight down here? _Well, Justimon didn't seem to mind the water although he wasn't nearly as heavy or bulky as Dukemon was so manoeuvring through the water wouldn't been as hard for the other Mega.

_Should I even try and attacking down here? _The Takato side of Dukemon wondered, hoping Guilmon would know something he didn't and was relieved to find out he did. Either way they needed to get out of the water quickly, partially to alleviate GigaSeadramon's insane advantage and draw the bastard Mega-level away from the survivors of Rainbow Bridge so emergency services could get to work without fear of attack.

"We need to get back up to the surface," Justimon said, "staying down here is suicide." Thanks for stating the obvious; Dukemon shook his head, biting his tongue. Still, it wasn't like GigaSeadramon was just going to let them head back up to the surface, if they wanted up they would have to fight their way there. So he thrust Gram forward, the lance flashed a bright white before the tip began to extend, flying towards their enemy who lazily twisted out of the way with a boorish laugh of superiority.

"This might sting! _Lightning Joust_!" Dukemon roared and GigaSeadramon wasn't fast enough to out manoeuvre the burst of lighting that expanded outward from Gram's still extended tip like giant balloon. The waters of the bay flashed again as it bubbled and swayed and everything suddenly got much hotter as sparks flickered around and shot off in different directions but the golden snake before them didn't seem to care and instead just laughed. All the Royal Knight could do was give up, shagging to his knees, hissing as his entire form stung and ached whilst Gram shrunk back to its normal size.

"All I think you did was tickle him…" Justimon shouted over the still swirling waters and all Dukemon could do was stagger back to his feet and shrug feebly. _Was worth a shot, _he said to himself already working on another plan of attack. All the while GigaSeadramon just floated there smugly, tail swishing back and forth like a pendulum.

"Do you understand now fools? This is my realm and you will only leave it when you data fades away with the tide," GigaSeadramon declared smugly before launching another barrage of missiles at the pair of them, forcing Justimon to juke upwards whilst Dukemon threw up Aegis once more to block the onslaught.

The ensuing explosions rocked the bottom of the bay as these missiles had been much stronger than the previous rounds. Sand and dirt jumped upwards, swaying from side to side with the raging current as Dukemon's already poor field of vision was all but erased, leaving him blind. _C'mon man this is ridiculous, as if I wasn't a big enough sitting duck before…_

When the dust finally settled and the bay water calmed Dukemon as left staring into an empty abyss, Justimon floating a good few feet above him– spinning frantically back and forth. He stared through the murky, wreckage filled depths only to spot a large hole about twenty feet from him; the implication of what it meant hit him a second later: GigaSeadramon had somehow burrowed into the dirty depths of the bay and was now somewhere underground, out of sight but not out of mind.

_How can he even do that…? _Something stirred in his gut and the iconic theme from the American movie _Jaws_ began echoing in his head. Still, GigaSeadramon was probably blinder than Dukemon under the dirt and water so the Royal Knight decided he was going to flush the snake out himself and began wading through the bay.

"Takato don't!" Justimon's warning came too late, he'd been suckered well and truly, no sooner had he raised Gram– ready to plunge into the crater left by GigaSeadramon so he could force the snake out with a fresher, stronger _Lightning Joust_ then the bay floor light up as light burst from the tunnel in the middle of the crater and Dukemon was suddenly shooting upwards and breached the surface before he could understand what was happening.

The world was spinning again, but this time when Dukemon finally touched back down to earth the landing was much harder– he'd somehow be blasted far enough that he crashed down on the edge of one half of the shattered, sagging Rainbow Bridge, crushing an abandoned car beneath him as he did so. He could smell the smoke rising from both the car he'd crushed and himself, armour dented and both Gram and Aegis lost to the ocean depths.

The words: _Condition Critical – division and reversion recommended_ appeared in front of his eyes as he groaned in pain. Realising something, probably his Digivice which was a part of him and thus a part of Dukemon was telling Takato he needed to stop fighting and left the Biomerge end; but he couldn't afford to leave Ryo to fight on his own so he fought with everything he had just to remain in the Mega-level state. Panting, he rolled off the pancaked car and forced himself upright with immeasurably effort.

_Crimson mode sure would be awesome right about now, _Dukemon thought as he threw up and arm and Aegis came spinning out of the water and hurtled back to him like a giant Frisbee, _whoosh_ing as it sprayed water everywhere. He almost fumbled the catch before he managed to slide the shield back onto his arm after a few attempts. Swaying before he staggered a step forward to the brink, he looked down into the waters bellow to see them light up again and again.

Summoning Gram back to him he was instead met with a broken lance with its tip long gone and cracks spider-webbing all down what remained, light gone from the steel. Dukemon sighed but prepared himself to take the plunge back into the deadly depths, only for a smoking and beaten Justimon to break free of the traitorous waters and come skidding to a halt about thirty feet away. _He looks about as good as I feel right now, _the pair swapped looks as the other Biomerged Tamer swiftly flew to his side as GigaSeadramon returned to above sea-level.

They both saw their enemy shiny and new, totally unharmed that they had one last shot to end this and if they failed it was game over.

"I've got an idea," Dukemon said as he cast the broken Gram aside and clutched the cracked Aegis for dear life.

"When you say plan do you mean a stupid plan or a crazy plan?"

"Stupidly crazy plan," Dukemon replied with equally jest as Justimon looked down at him.

"You sound like someone I used to know," Justimon said sadly, and he knew in that moment it was all Ryo that was talking. "Guess I don't have an alternative, so what have you got?" Dukemon told him, and to his credit the older Tamer-turned-Digimon actually agreed his plan was stupidly crazy, but just the right amount of crazy to work.

"We gotta go!" Dukemon cried as GigaSeadramon fired of a massive blast from his mouth-cannon, blowing away another chunk of the Rainbow Bridge as ashes rained down on the bay. Tired and beaten, Justimon was still fast enough to swoop behind him and grab Dukemon under the arms and take off into the air, narrowly avoiding being caught in the blast.

"Damn you're heavier than I though and that's saying something!"

"Not the time Ryo," Dukemon threw over his shoulder as the pair of them continued to fly higher into the air.

"Fools!" GigaSeadramon bellowed from down below, adding as his voice became magnified again; "do you think the air is any safer than the ocean depths? I will smite you all the same," and the giant serpent in all his arrogance rose out of the water completely for the first time since he'd taken to the water at the start of their battle.

"Gotcha," Justimon murmured from behind him and Dukemon nodded as GigaSeadramon began to gain speed as he tore after them. "Dukemon's away!" This was it; he was free falling through the air with all their hopes resting on this one stupid move that even Takato didn't know whether or not he could pull off in the first place.

_Just like against Beelzemon_, he thought, thinking back to his battle with the Mega-level form of the then crazed, and evil, Impmon who had been their enemy. Instead of falling through the sky with Gram in hand with the intent to impale though he plummeted with arms out stretched, clutching dearly to Aegis which light up with power and GigaSeadramon's eyes widened in horror as he suddenly realised this time it was he who had been sucked.

The dark Mega tried to back pedal, attempting to slow down and twist out of the path of impact but Dukemon did everything he could to stay on target as he shifted his weight to follow the snake. Though he and Guilmon had agreed internally that the beast place to hit their opponent was head on, preferably tearing thorough his mouth-cannon and although they missed the intended target, they still struck true and crashed into the side of GigaSeadramon's neck; yelling on impact; "_Shield of the Just_!"

Purifying light burst from Aegis and it cut through GigaSeadramon like a knife through hot butter. Dukemon was thrown once again through the air whilst Aegis disappeared into the bay waters bellow as he lost his grip on it. Still, the attack had done its job: the great leviathan had been left smoking and wailing in agony as he crashed through the air back towards the ruined remains of Rainbow Bridge, only to be impaled by the wreckage as he became tangled in wire-frame cable.

Dukemon had just enough time to see Justimon crash down on top of GigaSeadramon with a mighty _Thunder Clap_ before he hit the surface of the water and sunk into the depths once more. Through the rippling surface he could see even more of Rainbow Bridge crack and groan as it fell into the bay alongside him due to the sheer force with which the other Biomerged Mega had struck their injured enemy, who was dragged down screaming along with the rubble and cable that held him prisoner.

_It's over, _Dukemon thought with a sigh of relief as he rode the waves for a moment before a large mechanical hand snatched him from the bay and dragged him back to the old shipyard with enough speed that even a turtle would feel pity for them.

"Well, that was fun wouldn't you say?" Justimon joked as he let Dukemon flop onto the gravel and stood above him on wobbling legs. "Still, what the hell is _that_ thing?" he said, jerking his mechanical Trinity Arm towards the tall spire that now stood proudly in the middle of Tokyo Bay.

Dukemon pushed himself onto his knees to get a better look just as Rika, supporting a still barely conscious Renamon made their way over to join them. _It kind of looks like one of the Control Spire from the second series of the Digimon show… _still this one also looks sustainably more high-tech with a large dark red crystal running up the centre, visible through cracks and crevices in the body of the spire with large coil extending out of the bay waters and connecting at different points.

A moment later there was a loud hum as the crystal suddenly lit up, strange runes carved into all sides of the tower became visible and a huge beam shot from the spires tip into the sky above. The clouds overhead twisting and darkening for a moment before everything went still.

"That's never good," as if to prove Rika's point GigaSeadramon erupted from the bay once more to tower over them– although this time the damage was clear and the metallic serpent seemed to be in the same condition as Dukemon and Justimon. "What does it take to kill this guy?"

"You think this guy is hard to kill you _really_ don't want to meet the other Generals," Justimon murmured, but GigaSeadramon just laughed as mist suddenly began to leak from the strange spire and consume the defeated member of the Seven Generals.

"Until next we meet Tamers, and be assured, I _will_ be back to finish what I've started," GigaSeadramon hissed as he faded into the mist – which itself quickly dissipated, leaving nothing but the ominous tower in the middle of the bay.

"We'll be waiting," Justimon promised.

Dukemon was too distracted by the sudden feeling of someone yanking him backwards by pulling on his collar to care and the next thing he knew he was back to being Takato Matsuki and Guilmon. The large, red saurian didn't even get to say or do anything before the he slumped forward, out cold before he hit the gravel and Takato flopped down onto his rear, nursing a nasty gash above his eye he'd somehow gotten. His clothes were also a mess, soaked through and stained red with blood from cuts he was now covered in.

"Damn," Justimon said, before he split apart in Ryo and Monodramon, with the small purple Digimon likewise passing out almost instantly. "Never Biomerged with such a high Sync-rate before, have you? Guess nobody told you that the higher you go the harder it is to shrug off the nastier hits when you finally separate."

"Sync-rate? What are we: _Neon Genesis Evangelion_?" Rika demanded with a snort and if he'd been paying attention Takato might have found it funny that Rika had the exact same reaction he did to the entire Sync-rate thing. Instead though he was looking up at Ryo in confusion, during their meeting several years ago the boy they'd met had been all of about two years older than them at most but the man that now stood over him had to be in his mid-twenties, bloodied and exhausted with his turtleneck torn and hair all over the place and pants dripping wet.

_Just what the hell is going on…? _Takato thought as he recalled how Alice, or the thing that looked like her, had mentioned something about damaging the time-line. _None of this makes any sense, _he thought before he burst out laughing uncontrollably, earning strange looks from everyone still conscious.

"I hardly think now is the time to be laughing, Googlehead," Rika said with clear annoyance but Takato simply couldn't help it.

"Rika is right," Renamon concurred with her Tamer, shaking her head as Takato finally managed to get himself under control. "I do not enjoy being pessimistic but today was no victory. The only achievement we can claim is that out of the six of us no one died. The same cannot be said for many others,"

The true gravity of everything that had occurred in the last hour or so finally hit him and Takato looked on horror once more at the broken bridge. He wanted to throw up; he just didn't have the strength to do it. _I don't even want to try and imagine how many people were on that bridge when it went down…_

"I'm sorry," Takato said in a whisper as he tried to get back to his feet. "I… I just don't understand anything that's going on any more,"

"Yeah, about that," Ryo murmured as he scooped his Rookie Partner up off the gravel, "a deal is a deal. I don't know what good it will do you though; if anything the answers you'll get might only make the situation worse when you understand it just how bleak things are. Still, I thought you guys said you couldn't Biomerge any more: so how did you become Dukemon again? Not that I'm complaining, I swear,"

"We can't," Rika gestured with a jerk of her head towards Renamon as she looked demandingly at Takato.

"Alice said it was a one-time deal,"

"Alice?" Everyone else said together and Takato just nodded.

"I'll explain in a minute," he assured them as his knees gave out from under him and he toppled forward as the world grew dim. "Just let me pass out first…"

* * *

><p><strong>?<strong>

* * *

><p>"Well, that was… informative, don't you reckon?" asked the smaller of a pair of figures who had watched the the entire battle between the Shinjuku Tamers and GigaSeadramon from the Odaiba side of the Tokyo Bay, completely safe from the chaos which had just ensued. The larger of the two just grunted in response, a hooded teen in baggy jeans and deep maroon hoodie with a pair of goggles hanging out from under his hood shrugged one shoulder in disinterest before he started finishing around his pocket for something.<p>

"I'd have thought the Shinjuku Tamers wouldn't be able of Biomerge given what we know about how it works now…" he said before finally pulling out his phone and unlocking it with a casual drag of his thumb across the screen. "This complicates things if they can all still achieve the Mega-level, we're going to have to ask some questions." he wasn't overly fond of the idea of going toe-to-toe with the Tamers who had defeated the D-Reaper if they could still reach the Mega-level; even if a part of him agreed with his companions overzealous cry of: "We can still take them," the Shinjuku Tamers had after, not fought properly in what amounted to five long years.

"I'm not saying we can't, Veemon," the human said as he flicked through his phone-book and the blue, dragon-like Digimon nodded confidently as he punched one hand into the other. "You just got to remember we're on a clock here and fighting at the Mega-level just makes things harder. Yeah, it's me," he said, after a quick pause in which his phone had rung repeatedly until someone answered him.

"You see what happened down at Tokyo Bay?" There a moment of silence as he listed intently to the reply, grimacing before he replied: "Rainbow Bridge is scrap metal but it doesn't look like she was lying to us – there's now a giant ass Targeting Spire in the bay where the bridge used to be. How long before you can get down here and get to work?"

There was another brief pause, but this one left him with a slight smile and let him sight in relief at the good news. "Good," he nodded, "be safe about it, this place will be crawling with officials and emergency services after the circus that just happened. Me? I've still got work to do, you know that. Talk to Minami and tell him I've got a job for him before you leave. I'll catch you later,"

"Fight time?" Veemon asked, almost jumping with glee but he shook his head in negative.

"Not yet, you know the plan. Soon though, we just need to get on the inside track when it comes to what they're really capable of. Then it's go time." The teen assured as he turned away from the bay. "The Shinjuku Tamers think they can get away with this at their current level, but they couldn't be more wrong–"

"Damn straight: we'll kick their butts! Right, Daisuke?" Veemon declared and his Partner nodded with a smile.

"Damn straight," Daisuke repeated with a nod, smirking: "–we're the Olympians after all."


	7. What Happened to Us?

_**Degrees of Succession**_

* * *

><p><strong>VII<strong>

* * *

><p><em>I thought it was too good to be true<em>  
><em>I found somebody who understands me<em>  
><em>Someone who would help me to get through<em>  
><em>And fill an emptiness I had inside me<em>  
><em>But you kept inside and I just denied<em>  
><em>Some things that we should have both said<em>  
><em>I knew it was too good to be true<em>  
><em>Cause I'm the only one who understands me<em>

_What Happened to Us? _- Hoobstank

* * *

><p><strong>July Eighteenth<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Rika Makino<strong>

"You're awfully quiet," Renamon murmured from her perch across the room atop Takato's clutter covered desk, "_well_, more so than usual." The fox added with a hint of amusement and Rika just gave an uncaring shrug with one shoulder as she continued to flick one finger across the touch screen of her phone: it was odd looking at all these old photos now, so many memories of better times. Before the division, before puberty had hit. Before the betrayal. Still they did little to remove thoughts of the last few hours from her mind.

To say the last few hours had been hectic would be a gross understatement and it had left Rika's mind running away from her as she tried to get to grips with the situation she found herself in.

It had all really started the day before after Renamon had returned to tentatively announce that the sudden arrival of a Digimon in the park whilst Rika had been busy at swim practise had been none other than a rather bizarre looking Guilmon who had found himself reunited with Takato. The redhead's Partner had also mentioned the strange man who had confronted the pair, though in order to avoid detection she'd remained out of earshot. Rika had always figured that if Renamon had found a way to return to her (how was something the fox still refused to talk about) then it was only a matter of time until the other Partner Digimon did the same and it would inevitably mean they would all cross paths again.

That meant having to see Takato and after some of the things he'd said to her the last time they'd talked in November she wasn't sure if she was ready for that.

Maybe it was her own damn fault for placing him on such a high pedestal in the first place but Rika should have known given Takato's demeanour he would eventually lose his balance and plummet back down to earth – he'd always been a klutz but she'd never imagined just how spectacular his fall from the grace would be. In all honesty she wasn't sure what it said about her as a friend when she'd failed so utterly to see the signs that Takato was finally on the verge of flipping his shit. They'd all done it at some point in the past five years; Jen was the first to break and then it was Kazu, all within the space of the first few months of the Digimon leaving. It took her almost two years to finally give up and break down as the harsh reality of situation concerning the Digimon and how they wouldn't be coming back crashed down on top of her.

Not Takato though.

Out of all of them he lasted the longest by a long shot, trying desperately to keep them all together and keep hope alive that the Digimon would someday return. Maybe that was one of the reasons Rika had put him on such a large pedestal in the first place; old faithful Gogglehead and his endless supply of hope had been one of the reasons she herself had lasted so long. But even Takato's resolve began to crack and at a certain point he became more concerned trying to hold onto what little he had left instead of trying to keep everyone together.

In the end Takato proved himself as human as the rest of them and he'd finally hit his breaking point last November on the anniversary of the departure of the Digimon. Prior to that outburst Rika had only ever seen him loose his temper once before and _that_ incident had unleashed Megidramon on the Digital World – no wonder four years of pent up anger, frustration and despair had exploded so outstandingly. The redheaded Tamer did have to give him credit for lasting so long, and the outburst alone was completely understandable.

Takato's lashing out at her when she'd only been trying to help had _not_ been.

It shouldn't have surprised Rika, the one time preview of her friend's temper was clear proof she never wanted to see it again, that Takato had exploded so much worse than everyone else put together. She'd done her best to best to calm him down when he finally snapped; this unfortunately backfired as Takato didn't see her as someone who could relate and understand but instead as a verbal punching bag.

Even when angry Takato had said things she never thought him capable of thinking let alone saying and Rika had never been good with conflict– if someone shouted at her she took it as a challenge and quickly shouted back. It was then, in the middle of the arcade that she'd stupidly dragged him to in an attempt to get him out of his funk that Takato tore into her; throwing back at her some of her inner most fears and insecurities that she'd _confided_ in him– _all in public_ for everyone else to hear. Him going after her insecurities had honestly been rather tame compared to the sucker punch he threw at her in his rage.

In the end Takato had done much worse than simply humiliate her that day: he'd violated the trust she put him. The kind of trust she'd never given anyone else. She floored him with a good punch to the face and stormed off without looking back.

She'd refused to let him know that what he'd done had hurt her enough to reduce her to tears as she stormed from sight.

Rika had explain all of this to Renamon the previous evening, and that neither she and Takato had been within twenty feet of each other since that fateful day. She'd also asked her Partner to keep tabs on the goggle wearing idiot and make sure he was avoided at all costs, she didn't want to run into him until she was ready to deal with him on her own terms. Needless to say fate had royally fucked that plan sideways.

Takato had caught on much quicker than she would've thought (credit to him) and had forced her hand by leading her to the very spot they'd met at five years ago after some poor Digimon had been vaporized after trying to arrive in the park.

Then GigaSeadramon had shown up.

_Talk about jolly giant, _Rika snarked to herself as she grimaced at the very thought of the snake. That battle had been the very definition of an ass kicking – even Captain Marvel Ryo Akiyama had barely been able to stay in the fight on his own: the ass had later tried to defend himself by claiming he hadn't fought anything like GigaSeadramon in five years. She supposed in was only fair she cut him slack considering her own generation of Tamers actually had, in retrospect, almost no experience fighting at the Mega-level outside of the D-Reaper and its agents. The few actual Megas they'd fought were still around to talk about it.

The entire city had descended into chaos whilst Dukemon and Justimon had fought with GigaSeadramon and Rika was left with a nasty taste in her mouth at the fact she'd done absolutely nothing over the course of the battle. The entire world must've seen the footage the one helicopter brave enough to go near Tokyo Bay had captured before it was blasted from the sky. People where panicked, Rika was also a little more than afraid of what was next as Ryo had only said it would get worse if their Mega-level enemies had found a way to Biomerge.

_Guess it explains why all we ever had to deal with was the Devas when the Soverigns tried to get Calumon back all those years ago, _they simply couldn't send anyone stronger because firstly they couldn't afford to with the D-Reaper on its rampage and secondly because they weren't physically capable of doing so. Except now Mega-level Digimon _could_ enter the human world.

The streets on the way to the Matsuki family bakery were filled with panicking people and more than a few families looked like they were trying to leave the city altogether with the speed they were loading up their cars and how every train out of the city was packed beyond capacity. The government had already ordered a full scale evacuation of Odaiba and the areas surrounding the Tokyo Bay. _Bet Hypnos doesn't look so bad now, huh? Stupid suits, _Rika thought as she got bored of flicking through the images on her phone and shoved it into the pocket of her hoodie.

To her surprise, her mother and grandmother had been waiting for her, Ryo, the unconscious Takato and the Digimon. Takato's mother looked angry enough with her son to finish the work GigaSeadramon had started but managed to keep her temper in check, though Rika could still hear the odd mutter about how her son was a reckless idiot and how she wished he hadn't taken after his father so much. Even now the adults where downstairs talking, no doubt about the attack and Rika had opted to watch over the still unconscious Takato rather than sit in on that conversation – at least with him being out cold she didn't have to talk to him.

When she'd announced her intention to the room at large, her grandmother had given her a rather odd look that Rika couldn't quite make out and neither of them had actually said anything to the other since their arrivals. To (her lack of) surprise Ryo had spent five minutes inside the bakery before he tried to leave again; what got her was that he promised to return as soon as he could with someone he had promised Takato could talk to in the event they survived the Battle of Tokyo Bay, as the news was now calling it. Hopefully whoever this was they could clear some things up for everyone involved.

In the end, whilst he might have been a bit of an idiot at times Takato had never been what Rika would call lazy and it was only a matter of time until he groaned awake. Rika watched as the younger boy rolled off of his side and onto his back, bring his hands up rub the sleep from his eyes. It was a good thing, she thought to herself, that she found a rather interesting piece of empty sky to fixate on as she looked out of Takato's window as he pushed himself up right to sit on the edge of his bed.

"I feel like I got hit by a subway train," he mumbled and Renamon chuckled from her spot on the desk whilst Rika couldn't help but feel he probably wasn't that far off. Takato did a slightly double take as he noticed the yellow furred vixen on his desk quickly looking over to see Rika herself. "I, ugh, well…"

"Your dad changed you," Rika mumbled gesturing in Takato's direction uncaringly as she refused to meet his eye, "couldn't exactly let you stay in your soaked school uniform." Takato nodded, rubbing at his bare arm sheepishly as his father had seen fit to dump him in a plain tank and blue three quarter shorts.

Takato didn't seem to know what to say to her, so instead chanced another glance at Renamon who merely flickered out of view. Rika scowled; _Traitor, _she thought but at the same time appreciated that her Partner didn't want to make the looming talk any more awkward by acting as an audience.

"What happened after I passed out?" Sighing, Rika turned away from the window and actually looked at Takato for the first time since she'd sat down in his wheelie chair. He was covered in the signs of oncoming bruises and cuts, a particularly nasty one ran cut down the top of his right eye which would probably never heal properly. It wasn't his beaten appearance that got her though, it was the fact the goggle wearing Tamer looked so utterly defeated – to the point where he looked about ready to just lie down and take whatever was left to come.

"We brought you back here, obviously," even to her own ears she sounded overly snide, voice cutting and slightly condescending as she fed him the obvious. It was stupid but Rika couldn't really bring herself to feel overly guilty about it either. Still, she did her best to reel in her tongue and at least be civil; "the entire city is a mess. The government is shitting bricks and have ordered an evacuation of Odaiba and the other areas surrounding Tokyo Bay. A good few people have decided to ditch Tokyo altogether and all the news channels are telling people to stay indoors and wait for more information."

"_That's it_? That's all the government has to say…?" Takato asked in a tone of voice she couldn't quite place but it was clear from the look on his face what little hope he'd had left was now gone.

"They're claiming to know as much as everyone else," Rika said with a low sigh, sharing in Takato's feeling of defeat. "All they've said is that we can't take the risk that _this_, whatever it was, won't happen again. There words, not mine. Now cough up, how the hell did you pull off that Biomerge?"

"Alice," Takato said with a half-hearted shrug as he looked up at the ceiling of his room. "Or at least something that can make itself look like the girl who was Alice McCoy. It was the same thing from five years ago – it gave me the power to Biomerge one time and it wasn't enough. We've got nothing left to fight whatever comes next."

"You really think there's more coming? What the hell do you know that I don't?"

"That's it, _game over_," Takato shook his head before giving a fake chuckle and burying his face in his hands. He added, albeit slightly muffled; "I thought I knew, I thought I had it all figured out but clearly fate is out to prove that once again I know nothing. The _show _Rika – it's all based on stuff that really happened – I… and now the thing pretending to be Alice wants us to save two worlds and beat the guys the real protagonists of the show couldn't beat but we barely _survived_ against GigaSeadramon; an underling."

_I… what? _Rika at a rather understandable loss for words. Truth be told she'd never really be all that fond of the show, even as a kid, it just hadn't appealed to her in the same way the card game had which had hooked her thanks to her competitive nature. It helped that the card game had been one of the last things her father had introduced her to which gave it all that more value. In the end she couldn't come up with a response, sarcastic or not, and just let silence stand guard over them as they stared into empty space.

_This is beyond messed up, _she thought as he head lulled back and left her staring at the ceiling. "You're still going to fight, aren't you?"

"If my mother doesn't kill me first," Takato replied lamely but he managed a small smile as he looked over at her, and truthfully she smiled a little too. His mother had looked about ready to throttle the boy earlier, but after her husband had calmed her she instead been more concerned with getting his injuries, and Ryo's, seen to. The eldest of the Tamers though had point-blank refused any help and had also been oddly instant that taking Takato to a hospital was far too dangerous but refused to explain _why_.

It'd bugged not only Takato's mother, but Rika's own mother and the girl who worked for Takato's parents seemed rather annoyed by the idea that Ryo could just come in and start bossing everyone around. The young woman, Mimi, if Rika remembered rightly had not been shy about telling Ryo this because after hurriedly apologising to Takato's parents she'd stormed out the door after the supposed Legendary Tamer and began an argument with him in the street and neither had been seen since.

"Do you know if my dad has heard from my aunt at all?" Rika could only shake her head in a negative. She'd met Takato's older cousin some time ago, this time on his father's side, Kai being from his mother's side of the family, and knew Takato's extended family lived in Odaiba for the most part, even if his cousin now also lived in Shinjuku due to working for the same company that her mother was contracted to as a design intern. _Like the idiot needs more things to worry over…_

"I don't want forgiveness," Rika blinked as she realised that they were actually going to do this instead of sitting in silence again. The redhead looked over to where Takato sat on the edge of his bed, elbows on his knees, hands intertwined and head hung low in shame. "You're right, there's no forgiveness for how I betrayed your trust but at the same time I feel like we've done this before – there was a time few years ago were you didn't like me, were convinced you'd never trust me let alone work with me as a Tamer but look how that turned out.

"My dad says a lot of stupid things that I always thought was just him trying to sound smarter than he actually was," Takato cut her off before she could reply, clearly desperate to get his part said before she could either cut him off or dodge the conversation entirely. "But he always says things happen for a reason, and I think right now more than ever I need to believe he's right. We crashed, our friendship imploded but that doesn't mean our time as partners is finished."

Rika sighed softly, wondering to herself when had Takato learnt to make little speeches like those without tripping over his own words? Closing her eyes she took a deep breath, aware that the brunette was still staring at her rather intently as he awaited a response of some sort. It occurred to her that she could probably easily end this conversation and any chances of a second round by pointing out the first time Takato's hadn't betrayed her trust. At the same time she wanted to believe there was hope for them both, she really did.

"I don't want this," Rika admitted and she rolled her eyes at Takato's startled expression as his mind had clearly gone to the worst possible scenario at such a response. "Not us being friends, Gogglehead. _This_. This awkwardness and wrongness between us," she added softly, absently ruffling her hair as she looked to the ceiling. "I want to be your friend again, Takato – I do… I just don't know if I can. You hurt me and I'm _scared_ to trust you again because you might hurt me a second time."

Takato had no reply for her though he did look like he was trying his best to come up with something.

"If our position had been reserved do you think you'd ever let yourself trust me again?" Again, Takato had nothing to respond with but a look of defeat, burying his face in his hands as his shoulders slumped. "It so easy to be angry with you, y'know…? But I'm _tired _of being angry, of fighting and _hating_ you for using those secrets and insecurities against me. I just want it all to go away but it won't and now we have to deal with that fact. So I'm asking you, don't try and fix this because it'll only make things harder. Let it drop, we'll fight the good fight then go our separate ways."

"No," Takato's confidence as he looked up at her with raw determination took Rika by surprise and she couldn't help but raise an eyebrow in admission. "I'll fight for this. For us – because that's what friends do: it's what I should have done eight months ago instead of running away like… like some little _bitch_. Some scars might not heal but they fade and I won't let this slip away from me again. I've torn down your walls before and I'll damn sure do it again because you might have given up but every relationship is tested and the telling factor is whether or not someone is willing to stand up and make a stand when things get rough and that's what I'm going to do."

Nothing more was said as Takato stood up from his bed and walked out of the room. _Stupid Gogglehead… _she thought with a lacklustre smile as a part of her couldn't help but hope the idiot would prove her wrong yet again – he was pretty good at it by this point after all. He was also pretty good at taking a bad situation and making it worse just through the virtue of being himself.

And so Rika stayed there, sat on Takato's wheelie chair, staring out his bedroom window as her mind wondered away from her – as much as she wanted the optimistic fool to succeed a part of her couldn't help but listen to the little cynical voice in her head. Relationships where fragile and things had already snowballed rather badly out of control and if things went south again the question she found herself asking herself was who would she hate more at the end of it all: Takato or herself?

* * *

><p><strong>Takato Matsuki<strong>

"Decided to return to the realm of us living folk, huh?" Takato looked to his right to see his father who seemed to have had a similar idea; perched on an upturned crate at the back-door of the bakery, basking in the dim glow of the setting sun as the city stood oddly silent in wake of the days chaos. Takato just shrugged one shoulder as his father gestured for him to join him. "You've been out for a good few hours; good to see you back on your feet."

Takato sighed slightly, dropping onto the old box next to his father. Neither of them said anything else for a long time, they just sat and watched as the sun dipped from sight and the sky was left empty and bleak in its absence. Eventually the silence was cut by the sound of a soft _click_ and Takato looked to one side to see his father lighting a cigarette. He'd known his father had smoked once upon a time, though he'd stopped no long after the teen's birth at the request of his mother.

Given how his father coughed and spluttered after taking a short drag, Takato figured this really was the man's first cigarette in the better part of eighteen years.

"They sure don't make 'em like they used to…" Takehiro mumbled with a slight smile as he cast a glance down at the white packaging. Shaking his head the older man took another drag before shoving the little box back into his pockets. "Going to be bad, isn't it?"

Takato just nodded, seeing as he was pretty sure the question had be rhetorical but instead of returning to their silence his father carried on: "I really wish it wasn't you," he admitted, turning to look at his son Takehiro seemed torn over how to say what he needed to, "is that wrong of me? To wish something you've always wanted had never happened?"

"I never wished for _this_," Takato said as he felt shame stir within him, deep down in his gut, like his longing for the return of the Digimon was somehow responsible for the deaths of so many that afternoon in the middle of Tokyo Bay. "I don't know if I can live with the guilt. I froze up when GigaSeadramon appeared today, I was so scared of it that I wasn't able to help and people are dead because of it."

"You can't think like that, Takato," Takehiro shook his head, taking another drag after he settled again and locked eyes with his son. "Thoughts like those destroy even the best of men. As soon as you accept things like that as fact there is no coming back because the guilt will eat you up from the inside out. I might not understand the full scope of what's going on, probably never will, but I understand enough to know this is now a war and there are causalities in war.

"You've been lucky so far," it was in that moment that Takato realised his father looked so much older than he should, shoulders slumped and face stayed with worry lines and slight bags under his eyes. "You haven't lost anyone you know to this yet but mark my words it's inevitable, be it human or Digimon, not everyone is going to come out the other side of this if everything you have to face is like that thing from this afternoon. Everything happens for a reason son; we don't always like it and we can't always understand but the world always knocks us down when it needs us to comeback up stronger. Live today son, fight tomorrow so that others need not."

Takehiro patted his son's shoulder before taking one last drag and flicking away the used stub of his cigarette. "Thanks, dad," the brunette Tamer managed weakly, nodding to which his father nodded back. Patting his shoulder once more the baker stood up, dusting himself off before popping a mint into his mouth.

"It's what I'm here for son. Looks like someone else wants to talk to you, though," Takato turned to look down the little side street and saw Kazu standing there awkwardly. "Oh, and Takato," his father added just before he went through the bakery's back-door. "Don't tell your mother about the cigarette."

Despite himself Takato laughed, shaking his head as the father he knew suddenly re-emerged as the wise sage slipped back into obscurity. In the meantime Kazu shuffled his way up the street, scuffing his shoes off the ground with his hands stuffed into his pockets and shoulders hunched, hood pulled over his head despite the fact he was already wearing his now signature beanie hat.

"Listen, about earlier,"

"Don't," Takato stopped him, shaking his head. "Friends fight, _we_ fight all the time. This morning was just another one of the books." Admittedly he was still annoyed with Kazu for his attitude earlier, but maybe his father was right, both of them needed to see the bigger picture this morning and now they both did. Takato got the harsh reminder he needed that Taming had never been and never would be a game for him to indulge in and Kazu needed to remember the world didn't revolve around him and have his ego brought into line. They'd both been beaten and humbled by the day's events in different ways but at the end of it all Takato always knew he could count on Kazu to come through eventually, often kicking and screaming but it didn't change the fact he could always rely on his friend.

"I saw you get your ass beat on TV," Kazu joked as he dropped down onto the box where Takato's father had once sat. "Least I saw the start of the ass beating. Guess you won in the end though,"

"Not really." And Takato told him the full story – including everything to do with the strange encounter with Alice McCoy, or whatever she was, his talk with Rika and the truth behind the Digimon show– how his one-time idol was actually a part of the real Chosen Children or whatever they were called.

"Shit, talk about heavy," Kazu said, looking up at the sky as Takato nodded dumbly. "Props for how you handled the situation with Makino, least she didn't kill you." _Could've gone better, _he though shrugging one shoulder but at the same time he did know it could have also been much worse.

Eventually Takato's stomach gave a growl, a plea for attention and the pair looked at one another before Kazu rolled his eyes. Standing up, they were both about to head inside when Rika appeared in the doorway; looking a little unsure whilst also looking extremely pissed about something at the same time,

"Ryo's back," well, that explained everything, sort of, "and he brought company, lots of it. So I reckon it's time to get some answers." The group exchanged looks as Takato realised what exactly had taken Ryo so long to return; _He went and got everyone he could, not just this Hikari Yagami woman… _nodding, he followed Rika towards the dining room as he tried to get his head around the fact he was about to meet some of the real life counterparts that inspired his childhood heroes.

When the trio arrived though the group he was met with was certainly not what he had expected – especially given he knew everyone in the room. His parents, along with Rika's mother and grandmother already sat around the table, Mimi (whom after the past twenty four hours he was convinced was involved in this all in some way) stood against the far wall with a tall, blond in casual jeans and white polo that the goggle wearing Tamer was taken aback to see; "Coach Takashi?" Ryo, from his spot sitting atop one of the other counters laughed, shaking his head as Takato did another double take as he tried to get over who occupied the fifth seat at the table.

A young woman with fiery redhead hair and strikingly red eyes sat in a white blouse and business skirt, wringing her hands nervously as she muttered under her breath, trying to coach herself through what she needed to say. It took a moment but eventually, his elder cousin, Sora Takenouchi looked up and met his eyes.

"Sora…?"

"Hey, squirt. Ryo said you had some questions for Hikari but she's kind of behind evacuated from Odaiba right now so you're stuck with us instead. So…" Sora said, closing her eyes before she took a deep breath in preparation for the emotional gauntlet she was about to face. Takato, dumbfounded, could barely even register her words, or the fact that his cousin looked about ready to break down and run away in tears. "I guess it's time for you to hear our story and understand why you now have to fight a war we started: the story of Chosen Children and how we failed every way imaginable. "


	8. Warriors

_**Degrees of Succession**_

* * *

><p><strong>VIII<strong>

* * *

><p><em>The time will come, when you'll have to rise<em>  
><em>Above the best, improve yourself<em>  
><em>Your spirit never dies<em>  
><em>Farewell, I've gone, to take my throne<em>  
><em>Above, don't weep for me<em>  
><em>Cause this will be the labour of my love<em>

_Warriors - _Imagine Dragons

* * *

><p><strong>March Third – Five Years Ago<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Taichi Yagami<strong>

Taichi 'Tai' Yagami was only vaguely aware of the sound of waves crashing against the shore as he groaned awake, buried face first in a mountain of sand. Rolling slowly onto his back he muttered a curse under his breath as the waves hitting the shoreline soaked him up to his waist before the waves tumbled away again. Giving it all the effort he could muster, the young man forced himself to sit upright and blink dumbly as the light assaulted him and black sand tumbled from his hair like an oddly coloured avalanche.

He gave his stiff neck a crack before hanging his head as he realised just how sore and nauseated he felt at that moment. He didn't need to stare out at the sloshing ocean or oddly coloured and gridded sky to guess where he was– he'd only felt like twice before in his life and to feel this way again was both a blessing and a curse. _The Digital World, _he thought with a sigh of relief as he finally looked up at the waters.

What he saw had him peddling back across the sand which clung to his baggy combats and crept into the pockets of his jacket and into every other crook and cranny it could find. The ocean before him was mass of bloody red and swirling green data with large pillars of purple data streaming down from on high, the sky cracked and sparked as the once vivid orange and blue sky was a sickly looking green and the grid was flashing fervently.

"What the actual fuck…" he muttered as his body finally managed to register the command to stand on shaky legs. He didn't stay upright long however as his stomach gave a lurch and he dumped his lunch all over the black sand of the beach. _Ugh, what the hell is going on here… _well, in the grand scheme of things he thought as he pushed himself upright again he was three for three on throwing up after arriving in the Digital World.

Shaking his head of the last of the post-travel fog he staggered back another step and Tai finally pulled himself upright properly and stared out at the world. Chancing a glance over his shoulder he saw the space behind him was nothing more than endless expanse of sand – no landmarks or life to be seen in any direction. Not even a solitary rock was stranded in the middle of this abyss with him.

If unnerved him that even after all the time he spent here five years ago he didn't know where he was now - off all the Tamers no one knew this world better than him, with the possible exception of Ryo but his circumstances were slight skewed. Shaking his head again, the leader of the Odaiba Tamers narrowed his eyes, deciding that his best choice was to follow the coastline.

So he set off in search of Agumon and the others. He had to find the others. He had to find his sister.

For the past month various members of the team had slowly been vanishing off the face of the earth. Ryo, unsurprisingly, had been the first to vanish but when Koshiro had also disappeared not five days later everyone had suddenly realised something was seriously wrong. Next there was Jou who had been followed three days later by both Jun and Hikari before things had gone silent for over a week and a half. Tai figured whatever was behind this had finally got brave enough to try and take him on.

Little did the poor thing realise that by going after his friends it had only guaranteed itself one hell of a beating from Tai. Then it had gone after his sister– the thing might as well have signed its own death sentence. _I hope Takeru can keep things together on the other side, _he certainly didn't envy the blond that job; things had hardly been sunshine and roses prior to the first disappearances and everything had only gotten worse with each new disappearance.

At least now he was actually back in the Digital World, Tai felt like he could do something about their situation instead of just sitting around and waiting.

Still, with nothing to do but let his clothes dry out as he hiked down the coast Tai couldn't help but wonder why whatever crazed Digimon was responsible for this had taken who it had in such a bizarre order. _There's defiantly something I'm not seeing going on here, _sure the thing had caused some stir and panic among them all with each passing disappearance but if they had really wanted to cause a panic then why not come straight after him? He was the supposed 'Legendary General': _he_ was the one known as the Victory Tamer after all.

Just when he was about to completely go insane in his solitude, stressing over potential enemies who had come after them and why the world began to shake. _Since when have there been earthquakes in the Digital World…? _But as he lost his balance and was thrown face first into the sand the silence of the coastline was cut short but a ground shattering _crack_.

A fresh pillar of purple and pink swirling data came down from the sky about forty feet behind Tai, and then, as he clambered up and looked at it the thing moved in his direction. _Oh shit…! _The Victory Tamer thought as the ground split and cracked and sand was sucked away as if by some giant invisible vacuum whilst grass began to grow in its stead as the beam closed in on him and trees began popping up everything.

He realised too late that he should have been running and was caught in the pillars pull and sucked up with the remaining sand into the vacuum whilst the world went white for a split second and before he knew it everything was black as he was once again buried in sand.

"This shit ain't funny any more!" Tai bellowed and he burst out from under it all, seething as he goggles hung limply around his neck and his wild mane of chocolate hair was weighed down by a crown of sand. To his great surprise however his outburst was actually met with a chuckle of approval.

"It would seem the years have not done much to dull your wicked tongue, old friend," looking over his shoulder at the speaker Tai saw a squat Digimon dressed in khaki looking robs stained by age and tattered purple cloak and matching pointed hat. The Digimon just chuckled at his reaction again; arms crossed over his chest and staff resting against his shoulder. "It is good to see you again, Tai,"

"Wizardmon…!" Tai said with a slight stammer, taken aback to see their once crucial alley in defeating Myotismon and quasi-mentor. "What the heck is going on?"

"I'm afraid there isn't the time to discuss that here," Wizardmon said with a shake of his said before he grabbed his staff and turned on his heel. "We must get moving before another shift takes places and completely disrupts the Digital World's layout even further. When we reach the Temple of the Sovereigns I'll explain everything when all are assembled and ready."

Groaning in frustration, Tai decided it was best not to argue with the diminutive wizard who was much more powerful than his level might imply and instead tried to get what information he could whilst doing as he was told. "I'm guessing everyone's here then – or at least not the people who have not vanished from our world prior to this."

"You are correct," Wizardmon nodded without looking back as they hiked blindly into this new, more normal looking desert, "we were fortunate to find you all so quickly; the brothers arrived together and Gabumon lead them to the temple whilst Mimi was found by Leomon and Sora managed to find the temple on her own. Agumon is also waiting for you there,"

"That's something," Tai thought but he was pretty sure his face betrayed his mixed feelings over the news but thankfully Wizardmon didn't look around to see. Still, the Champion was oddly perceptive and seemed to understand humans on a much deeper level than most other Digimon and could still probably read Tai from his voice alone but did not challenge or force further conversation as they disappeared among the dunes and wind.

They must've walked for the better part of a few hours because even Tai, with all his physical training and stupidly high stamina felt about ready to collapse as the old temple came into sight.

It was a stark contrast to what he remembered from all those years ago when they'd first come to the Digital World – then the Temple of the Sovereigns had sat amongst lush greenery and oakwood and elm trees in the heart of large forest, like a beautiful and elaborate shrine built into the face of a mountain on File Island with high spires and smooth stone walls and wooden framed windows of glittering glass. Now it was a wreck, dishevelled and crooked looking left to rot in the middle of an ocean of sand whilst the old mountain had crumbled and shattered whilst the trees and plant life had all made for safer grounds.

"But… are we on File Island?" Tai asked after taking a moment to catch his breath.

"File Island is gone. Server is gone. Modem, Folder, Olympus… all _gone_," Wizardmon said with a heavy sigh, his shoulder sagged and he suddenly looked much more worn down and ruffled than Tai ever remembered. "As I said though, together, I will explain everything in a few minutes."

"Sakuyamon…?" Tai asked though from the sounds of it he'd already guessed where the temple's guardian was.

"Butchered," Wizardmon spoke with such venom that Tai was startled into silence. In the enter time he'd known the short Champion he had only ever seen one Digimon provoke such a reaction from Wizardmon. His brother– "by _Piedmon_."

"I'm sorry,"

"It is no fault of yours, Tai," Wizardmon looked over his shoulder before shaking his head. "I grieve for the loss of a dear friend but I do not know the pain which Dukemon feels. I fear for his sanity now Sakuyamon is no longer here to keep him anchored and Alphamon and Omnimon have both vanished without a trace. The last thing we need now is for the beast within him to take advantage of his emotionally crippled state."

"Megidramon," Tai whispered with a nod of understanding as the pair stumbled down the last slope to the bottom of the temples steps, worn and cracked by the harsh winds and bite of the sand. The Victory Tamer had only heard tales of the apocalyptic beast, Dukemon's sworn duty being to contain the beast within himself no matter the cost. Still, the prophecies of this very temple spoke of a day when the beast would return and reshape the fate of the Digital World, for the better or the worse was anyone's guess.

To Tai's surprise the inside of the temple was still in reasonable condition despite the death of its caretaker at the hands of the only Digimon Tai feared. The short hall was a little strewn and covered in sand but the intricate tapestries still hung stalwartly from the walls and the large finely carved statues of the four Sovereigns, with two on each side, acted as pillars holding up the roof with a huge oriental statue of a white tree and golden dragon dominated the centre of the hallway.

Wizardmon led Tai through the main door behind the statues and into the large chamber beyond where the other Odaiba Tamers waited for him. The room was void of the large table that had once run up its centre and was instead left Spartan besides more tapestries on the wall – these of the ten symbols which the Tamers were supposed to emulate above all others: Valour, Loyalty, Love, Wisdom, Sincerity, Reliability, Hope, Purity, Tenacity and Faith. Whilst he himself emulated and stood as the warrior of Valour as the leader of the team it was his duty to do his best to represent each and everyone of the Crests to a certain degree.

"Tai!" It was Agumon who had shouted his name; the stout little yellow tyrannosaurs ran towards him with a toothy grin, clawed hands thrown in the air as he rushed in for a hug. Tai just chuckled weakly, bending down to indulge his Partner and also because he needed to make sure this wasn't some really horrible nightmare. The way Agumon almost bulldozed him over pretty much guaranteed this was all very real. "I was beginning to think you'd never show up!"

"Y'know me Agumon," Tai joked as the pair of them pulled apart, "the hero is always fashionably late but he'll always show up. Eventually," he added with a grin to match his Partner's before he stood back up and looked at what was left of his team. _Well, this is certainly a great start… _he thought as he saw just how scattered and awkward everyone was – Mimi and Takeru sat huddled together with Palmon, though Patamon was nowhere to be seen whilst Yamato stood standoffish to one side away from everyone else as he could get whilst having a hushed conversation with Gabumon whilst Sora, with legs pulled up against her chest sat quietly in lonely corner as Biyomon tried to coax what was wrong out of her to no avail.

_Peachy, it looks like we're back to square fucking one, _Tai groaned but before he could say anything to what remained of his team another presence made itself known.

"Tai, Wizardmon. Excellent now we can finally begin," Leomon rumbled in his deep voice as he emerged from a side chamber with blankets, spare clothes and supplies for cooking. "Perhaps we should look into some dinner first, though," the large lion warrior laughed as Agumon's stomach made itself known to everyone at large and some of the other Partner Digimon joined in the laughter. Not a single Tamer even cracked half a smile.

Leomon all handed them clean clothes, given Tai was _still_ somehow wet and covered in sand and he wasn't even the worst off. The already tiny group split off into two smaller ones as the boy went to one side chamber and the girls another to change. None of the three boys spoke, Yamato didn't even look at him whilst Takeru did his best to hide just how worried and confused he was both by their current situation and whatever else was going on in the group he didn't know about: namely the palpable tension between the Victory Tamer and his second in command.

In the end the younger blond had quickly changed and shot Tai an apologetic look after his older brother had charged past the brunette, making no effort to avoid slamming his shoulder into the other Tamer as he went. It'd been difficult to swallow the instinctive urge to turn on his friend and yell at him, calling him out but he's wasn't in much of a position to be taking the moral high ground with Yamato in any argument at that moment.

Groaning, he just ruffled his hair one last time as he sat on an old stool in attempt to rid himself of what sand still rested there before pulling on the black, long-sleeved muscle shirt Leomon had provided him with. It seemed the clothes Leomon had given them weren't perfect fits; the muscle shirt was admittedly a little tighter than it should have been also being a little short in the sleeve and the baggy blue jeans were about a size to big and too long in the leg. Thankfully the lion had enough foresight to see this might be the chase and provided him with a belt. At least the sneakers were actually the correct size. Wizardmon had also noted the lack of a spare jacket and since offered to have his actual one cleaned for him, which was something. He never did find out where the hell they got all their human goods from.

_Why now of all times…? _Tai thought as his head lulled back against the cold stone of the wall behind him as he gazed vacantly at the ceiling. _What would your advice be in this situation, old fart? _He wondered, casually stroking the old aviator goggles which had once belonged to his grandfather: his hero. The old geezer had since passed away in the years since their first trip to the Digital World and during their brief return to the human world he had been the one to given him the advice and confidence he'd need to step up and lead the team properly. What Tai wouldn't give for one last conversation with the old man whose goggles and dog-tags he wore with pride.

"Tai," _Hmm…? _It took him a moment to realise someone was trying to talk to him seeing as he'd become so absorbed in his own thoughts. Looking to one side he saw a familiar fiery redhead, though Sora did look rather drained; hair boyishly short, spiky mess and deep bags beginning to show under her eyes. Again Leomon seemed to have missed the mark with his guesses in clothing sizes; the white t-shirt Sora was wearing looked more like a small tent given how large it was one her and the skinny jeans only reached just past her knees whilst the striped black and red socks ran up to meet the jeans. "The food is almost ready,"

Tai just nodded wordlessly; clambering to his feet as he pulled his goggles back on and let them hang around his neck and headed for the main chamber.

It didn't surprise him when they reached the group Sora broke off from him and went to sit with Biyomon and put some distance between her and everyone else. Tai just plopped down onto an old camp stool that had appeared from somewhere next to where Agumon was stuffing his face and accepted the plate Mimi offered him without comment.

Everyone was hungry; but he was pretty certain that wasn't the reason the food vanished in no time at all because it wasn't long before everyone was looking at Wizardmon expectantly. To his credit the squat little magician didn't seem perturb by the stares, looking up to Leomon once who nodded in return. Setting down his staff, and taking his pointed purple hat off, the Champion-level Digimon finally began the long overdue explanation:

"The Digital World is dying, my friends," Mimi took a sharp intake of breath whilst Tai scowled and Takeru looked even more confused and Sora pulled Biyomon closer into a bone crushing hug. Yamato didn't even blink. "It would seem as though some force _outside _of the Digital World," nobody missed what he was implying, "has caused irreparable damage to the barriers that protect the Digital World from the flow of data on the internet and it is now all flooding in at once. This has resulted in everything changing, the world is broken and breaking itself further in order to try and create more places to direct the data flooding in– leaving nothing of the Digital World you knew but your memories and instead splitting it into many different planes."

"The Digital World will eventually be flooded to the point of total collapse, such an event is still decades off thankfully." Leomon added, trying to give them a little less to worry about. "The eventual collapse of the Digital World is not the immediate problem,"

_Of course it isn't,_ Tai thought with a slight grunt as he began messaging the bridge of his nose. They'd barely started and this conversation was already giving him a headache.

"The five remaining members of the Seven Great Demon Lords have finally regrouped and have aligned forces," Wizardmon murmured softly, shoulders sagging as he looked down at the floor for a brief moment. "What's more is that they're winning the battle against the Sovereigns who can no longer focus on restoring the Digital World when all their resources are eaten up by this war."

"What does any of this have to do with us?" Tai wasn't surprised by the fact it was Yamato who asked the question he himself had been wondering. Still, his friend probably could have been a little more sensitive in his wording and his question was met from uproar from his younger brother.

"What the hell, brother? We're Tamers; protecting the Digital World is our job!"

"That was a one-time deal: the Sovereigns even said so!"

"Enough!" Tai barked irritably before the argument could go any further. Infighting was the last thing they needed but it was probably unavoidable at this point given how obvious Yamato had made his opinion already without even hearing the full story, though a part of Tai did agree with him. They'd done their part, why the hell were they being drafted again? "Mind finishing the explanation, Wizardmon?"

"Of course," the short magician nodded in understanding, "the recent conflict seems to have awakened something dark and ancient buried deep within the Digital World and the war between the Demon Lords and the Sovereigns has gone from battle for control of the Digital World to weakening the other side to use as fodder long enough for the victor to buy time to defeat whatever this thing is. It seems, however, that one Demon Lord with particular interest in the human world has other plans."

"Or at least his lieutenant does," a deep growl cut across the chamber as a bettered and dented crimson and silver knight emerged from the shadows. Dukemon stepped in view, beaten beyond belief with mantle and weapons both gone and an empty look in his eyes. "Piedmon is carrying out Daemon's last directive and using his position as head of the Circle and his alliance with Lilithmon to finish and fully enact _Operation_ _Neo_."

_Crap, _Tai was very much aware that everyone was now looking directly at him and his hands instinctively tightened on nothing as repressed memories came rushing back to him with such speed that he had to fight the urge to throw up a second time that day. Operation Neo had been the last plan the Demon Lord, crippled and weakened in his Champion form of Devimon, had set into motion before his destruction at the hands of Angemon. After having been captured, the five of them currently sat around the small camp-fire were all scanned one by one and the data was given to one of Daemon's scientists, the mad monkey Etemon who had captured two of Barbramon's underlyings and was forcing them to assist on the project.

The whole mess had forced the Tamers to detour and deal with Etemon before he could create evil clones of each of them sworn to serve Daemon. In the end whilst Sora's was also made but never activated Tai was the only one to have his counterpart come to life and run amok– they eventually settled on calling the white haired bastard Neo after the project that had birthed him and destroying him was something that still gave Tai nightmares.

"That's why the others were the ones taken, wasn't it?" Tai asked quietly after a moment's thought, "they're the ones that Piedmon doesn't have any data for. Though we destroyed Neo and Sora's copy they still have the data they need to make them again. Then they'll come after us and kill us so they can return to our world as Daemon's advance guard. That's it isn't it? Why fight for a dying world when he can take notes from Myotismon and conquer the world which can't fight back."

"That is our belief, yes," Leomon nodded his head, whilst Tai could only sigh and run one hand through his hair. Why did it not surprise him that stupid mistakes he'd made as a rookie were coming back to haunt him when karma seemed out to get him of late.

"But how the hell does Daemon plan on conquering our world if he's _dead_?" Sora demanded anxiously, shooting Takeru who had gone rather pale looking at the mention of his one-time nemesis. "He was crippled, _you_ promised us that–" she added, glaring at Dukemon now, "the only reason we fought him in the first place was because you promised us that he was powerless without his followers who had all abounded him and that destroying him back then would see him gone forever. Even then you were wrong – you _lied _– and everything that happened afterwards was us trying to clean up after the mess you dropped us into; Myotismon would have never known about the human world and invaded if you hadn't brought us here to fight for you!"

"You have every right to be angry with us, Sora, all of you do," Wizardmon said softly, holding up his hands in an attempt to sooth the once again fiery redhead, and whilst she did bite her tongue she still glared at the three Digimon who were supposedly their mentors and friends. "But there will be time for accusation and blame later, right now we must gather ourselves and prepare to face the threat Daemon is creating."

"He's _dead_," Takeru snapped, angrily as he actually jumped out of his seat as he refused to accept the possibility of the thing that still haunted his dreams could ever return. "He's dead…! Unless, oh god…"

"Patamon," Tai finished for the blond before hiding a sigh behind one hand, "Patamon is the only Partner Digimon still missing. But that's because they need him isn't it? Daemon, as Devimon, did something during their battle, right?"

"It's our belief that Daemon somehow managed to slip some of his own data into Angemon as his body broke down," _He turned him into a backup copy, _was what Dukemon was really saying. Now they had Patamon they could extract the latent data hidden inside the Rookie and resurrect the Digital World's greatest evil. _This was part of the plan all along; Daemon has been playing everyone for decades to get to this point… _it did explain Patamon's abnormal strength to an extent though, the little Rookie had being carrying part of one of the Seven Great Demons Lord around inside of him.

"Guess we've got no choice but to fight," Tai said in admission as he looked up at the rest of his team and he wasn't shocked when nobody looked pleased with his announcement.

"Like hell we do," again it was Yamato who challenged him, but Tai didn't retort and instead waited for what the blonde had to say – there was a reason he had always had faith in Yamato to lead should he not be able to but he was sure this sudden declaration would bring them to odds once again. "What we need to do is go and rescue our friends and get the hell out of here and let the so called Sovereigns deal with their own damn problems for once instead of letting them use us as fodder in their war!

"This was never supposed to be our fight," he added snappishly, cutting off Sora who was going to retort. "We were fourteen, damn it! They conscripted us, a bunch of kids, who had nothing to do with any of this and forced us to fight their war if we wanted to go home and all its done is screw us up beyond repair. If they want someone to save them so badly why don't they just waited on their so called prophesied saviours, _huh_? Well, Tai? _This isn't our war any more: it never was!_"

Tai hated that not only did understand Yamato's point but a part of him whole-heartedly agreed with it and would be more than happy to pack up and leave the Sovereigns to their fate. But that wasn't who he was; nor was fair to the rest of the Digital World. Yamato was right; this place had seriously screwed them all up, turned them into child soldiers and left them struggling to find some sense of normalcy again even after all these years– there were still nights he found himself sleeping on the floor after a particularly vivid flashback because he was reminded of just how soft his bed was. Yet he still wasn't the kind of person to walk away from those that needed him. The Digital World had caused his old goofy side to retreat deep inside of him, but it had also brought some of his other virtues to surface, virtues even he hadn't known he possessed.

That was why he stood up and said two little sentences that sealed all their fates: "They have my sister. We fight and we finish what should have finished five years ago."

"Are you for real?" Yamato didn't seem surprised nor did he show any sign of backing down. "I don't think you're in any position to be making decisions for the team when you're clearly emotionally compromised."

"Emotional compromised?" Tai repeated, he could understand Yamato refusing this all on grounds that it really didn't have anything to with them any more but he was going to save his sister one way or the other. "Get off you fucking high horse, Yamato because we both know if it was Takeru they had you'd be storming off to save him everyone else's opinion be damned."

"You're right, I would be," Yamato admitted with a nodded as he matched Tai's glare with one of his own, but kept his voice even. "I wouldn't drag everyone else into this clusterfuck that you're ready to charge head first into though! You need to stop and think, do you really think that insane clown will just let us walk in and rescue the others without retaliating?"

"What does it matter?" Tai fired back, gesturing to where Wizardmon and Leomon stood stalwartly together before the looming form of Dukemon. "Weren't you listening: if we give them time to complete Operation Neo then our world is as good as done for? We need to get moving and stop this before it gets worse."

"No! What we need to do is rescue our friends and then get the hell out of here so we can warn our world about what the hell is going on. Every time someone tries to win a war before it starts innocent people die," Yamato said in reply as he gave the trio of Digimon Tai had pointed out and looked torn for a moment before he carried on. "They've used us once before and then had us trying to clean up their mess. No again."

"Oh, so we should leave the entire Digital World to die because the ones in charge are assholes?"

"If it means protecting our own," Yamato hissed as he squared up to Tai fully, noses inches from one another as they glared the other down. "Answer me something Tai, if it does come down to it and you can only save one world which one are you going to risk it all for, huh? Because I can say from past experience that whilst you might seem like you know what you're doing you have a pretty bad habit of fucking up the really important choices when it counts the most."

Tai knew what Yamato was talking about and if he'd had his head on straight he would've even said the verbal blow below the belt was completely justified – sadly no one was in the right frame of mind in that moment and the Legendary Tamer saw red. Screaming, Tai flew at his friend hoping to land a few good hits before the other young man could react but everyone else seemed to have foreseen the pair of them coming to blows and before he realised it he was being dragged back by the combine efforts of Takeru and Mimi whilst Sora stood between him and the blonde who now had a bloody noise.

"What the hell is wrong with _both_ of you? Put your dicks away and start thinking with your heads," he couldn't help it, but Tai laughed at how coarse Sora was and he felt a lot of the anger bubbling inside simmer slightly as she shot him a death glare. "Everyone is emotionally compromised right now; don't deny it," the redhead snapped as she rounded on Yamato with renewed vigour. "You knew exactly which buttons to push and you did; so whilst you might not have gotten to hit back you're just as guilty as he is right now." He, being Tai, who frowned at how he was being talked about like he wasn't even there to begin with.

"How do either of you plan to save the others without the help of Dukemon, Leomon and Wizardmon? Or save the Digital World like this? To save our world?" Takeru added in as he loosened his grip on Tai slightly, the younger blond gave him one last look before releasing him properly before Mimi copied him. "We don't have a choice. We've been conscripted again and the only option we have is to fight here and now and win this war before it can harm any more innocents,"

Nobody challenged that, "Your brother is pretty smart," Tai said as he straightened himself up, doing his best to not roll his eyes at Yamato's grunt of response. "What else do we need to know,"

"Nothing. Accept," Dukemon caught himself after a moment, "Piedmon is _mine_. None of you are to touch him, understand?" Tai nodded whilst the others who didn't yet know the details on Sakuyamon's fate exchanged confused looks.

"Alright, you've got your warriors," Tai said, though the words left a bad taste in his throat, "lets go to war already."


	9. Pain Redefined

_**Degrees of Succession**_

* * *

><p><strong>VX<strong>

* * *

><p><em>Fading, falling, lost in forever<em>  
><em>Will I find a way to keep it together?<em>  
><em>Am I strong enough to last through the weather in the hurricane of my life?<em>  
><em>Can it be a conscious decision?<em>  
><em>That I look for ways to alter my vision?<em>  
><em>Am I speeding towards another collision in the alleyways of my life?<em>

_Pain Redefined - _Disturbed

* * *

><p><strong>July Eighteenth<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Rika Makino<strong>

Rika had met Sora Takenouchi a few times before and she'd admit that she had liked the older girl; although no longer the tomboy of youth Sora had still proven to be a strong independent woman who could offer good advice and relate to what it was like trying to make that transition into what most people saw as respectable young woman whilst maintaining her passion and drive. The woman at the Matsuki kitchen table however was not someone Rika could say she'd met before, this woman was shaky and nervous, wring her hands as she tried to work up the courage to look them all in the eyes.

She'd tried to lift the cup of tea she was offered, only for her had to rattle fiercely as she tried to lift it, sending the liquid all over the table top. Sore had only hung her head in shame as Mrs. Matsuki had quickly put a hand on her shoulder for comfort, before standing up to gather a cloth and wipe the table down. A few moments later a fresh cup was laid down in front of the older redhead. This one went untouched.

"I guess I should start at the beginning but to do that I'd actually have to know when everything really began," Sora murmured eventually, the painful silence in which everyone had fidgeted and waited impatiently for someone else to say anything finally at an end as red eyes came up from staring absently at the teacup. "So I guess the best thing to do is start at the point were we, the original Tamers, got dragged into all of this. It was August third nineteen ninety three."

_Why does that date sound familiar?_ Rika thought, noticing from her spot sat atop the kitchen worktop next to where Takato and Kazu stood that she wasn't the only one to know the date was supposed to have some sort significance other than being the apparent start date of their tale. What really surprised her though was that it was Kazu of all people who knew what exactly happened on the date in question: "The Hikarigaoka bombing: it was a Digimon attack, wasn't it?"

"Why the hell would you think that?" Rika demanded and Kazu chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head and the solo female Shinjuku Tamer was pretty certain she heard a nervous murmur about conspiracy sites. Truthfully if didn't surprise her although it did make her wonder just how many other bizarre incidents over the years with strange explanations had in fact been Digimon attacks.

"It was a Digimon attack," Sora confirmed after taking a deep breath and whilst she still looked nervous the older redhead certainly sounded a little more confident now she had actually started talking, "It was actually the very first time a Digimon ever came to our world, in the form of an egg; somehow passing through the screen of an old monitor and appearing in the home of two young children named Taichi and Hikari Yagami. In the next twenty four hours that egg not only hatched it evolved several times and became friends with the two children who had found it.

"Though this Digimon would seemingly perish later in battle with a savage Parrotmon the entire fight was witnessed by the two children that had found the egg and seven others." Sora smiled sadly for a moment before shaking her head before looking over her shoulder at the other first generation Tamers. "Some of those child witnesses now stand before you as adults, twenty years later."

"Wait, you're telling me the famed Greymon versus Parrotmon battle from the Digimon pilot really was witnessed by a bunch of kids – that it actually happened like _that_? That movie just got _so_ much darker…" Kazu shuddered and Rika agreed it was a little twisted that such a monumental scene from the show was actually adapted so accurately from history then aimed at children – although from the sound of things the version Takato had made her suffer through was probably a lighter and softer rendition than version of events that actually happened.

"Admittedly it was altered given it was to be marketed towards children," Sora said with a slight nod of her head, "but out of all the Digimon material that had been created the pilot still remains the most faithful adaptation of any of the trials we went through. One thing that was never included though was that the Greymon involved in the battle wasn't actually a giant or unique in any way at a single glance, as much as I remember he was just a normal Greymon: one which the rest of the group would meet ten years later when that Greymon, as a Koromon, officially became Tai's Digimon Partner."

"Holy shit…" Kazu whispered but to his credit the fan-boy actually seemed to understand the gravity of the situation and wasn't on the verge of freaking out over being seated in the same room as his childhood heroes. Or, if he was, he was able to suppress it surprisingly well.

"Weren't we supposed to be staying at your sister's that night as well, Takehiro?" Mei asked, looking to her husband who nodded thoughtfully as he tried to remember exactly why.

"Saiko's wedding was supposed to be the next day wasn't it?" The baker snapped his fingers when he finally remembered, "Your parents were also supposed to be attending as well, right Ryo?"

"How do you know that?" Ryo asked, seemingly surprised at his sudden inclusion in the discussion.

"Your mother and I were both friends with Saiko Namikawa and Sora's mother, Toshiko in high school. Toshiko and I even went to university together," Mei nodded, before turning to her husband, "that was shortly after she had introduced us for the first time. But Sora, you were five years old in the August of ninety three."

"Apparently age didn't mean much as witnessing that battle put me on the short-list to save the Digital World." Sora shook her head as she finally managed to stop wringing her hands and instead formed tightly clenched fists. "I can understand Tai and Hikari being chosen but the rest of us had no prior contact to Digimon outside of watching that battle from a distance before we were sucked into the Digital World ten years later; yet according to the Sovereigns this somehow made us the only children in the entire world capable of beating an ancient evil and fulfilling our so-called destiny."

Rika was pretty sure she wasn't the only one taken aback by Sora's sudden hostility and the very mention of the Digimon Sovereigns. It looked like even mentioning the Four Holy Beasts had caused her a great deal of physical pain. Likewise the other older Tamers all looked murderous at the very mention of the 'protectors' of the Digital World._ Well, there goes any hope we had of this conversation turning out to be a positive one._

"Originally our mission was to destroy the then crippled Daemon," Takeru spoke up for the first time since the younger Tamers had arrived, visibly shaking with rage. "What they told us was that he had been defeated long ago by a group called the Legendary Warriors and had since lost all of his supporters and power and reverted to his Champion-level of Devimon, but they – the Sovereigns themselves – couldn't make a direct move against him without somehow restarting a war with the rest of the Demon Lords."

"The truth of the matter was that Daemon's… _lover_, I suppose you could call her, Lilithmon had assumed control over the other Demon Lords because with both Lucemon and Daemon effectively naturalized by the time we showed up, she was left strongest remaining Demon Lord by a _far_ margin," Ryo added for the blond as he placed a hand on his shoulder whilst those who didn't know the full story swapped confused looks. "Lilithmon had made an alliance with Daemon's Hand; Piedmon and guarded him against any and all threats and both of them were working to restore the fallen Demon Lord to his position of power. Knowing this, and that if Lilithmon or Piedmon would destroy us with a single flick of their pinkie finger if they found out we were gunning for the then Devimon the Sovereigns still sent us after the former Daemon Lord simply because neither of his protectors had prepared for such a possibility."

"What followed was the Battle of File Island, which we barely came out off on the winning side," Sora sighed, ruffling her hair for a moment before she pulled it out its braid, letting the asymmetrical, armpit-length mess fall to the left side of her face and rest over her shoulder. There was a long moment of silence before she continued; "the truth was we actually managed to overcome Devimon quicker than the Sovereigns had expected and we hadn't achieved the real goal they wanted us for in the first place."

"Unlocking the Crests, right?" Takato asked his cousin, speaking for the first time since his shocked declaration earlier. Sora nodded sadly, looking more and more drained the further she got into the story. "There's more to the Crests that just being power amplifiers."

"There is," Sora nodded slowly, looking over her shoulder at the others, all of whom nodded at her. "Right now that isn't important; though we will come back to it. I promise," she said upon seeing Kazu's aghast expression. "You see, whilst we had defeated Devimon relatively quickly it hadn't stopped him from setting several plans in motion and even finding a way to cheat destruction by secretly placing some of his own data inside one of our Digimon that Piedmon could extract at a later date and use to rebirth his master."

"Wait a second," Rika said, shaking her head whilst everyone turned in her direction, "what you just said is completely contradictory to everything we know about loading the data of a Digimon you've defeated. Once you load a Digimon that's it; end of the line, they cease to be, gone the way of the dodo, joined the choir invisible."

"Firstly Patamon never load Devimon's data; the bastard somehow slipped a part of himself into my Partner's egg as the pair of them both broke down. And secondly," Takeru almost shouted. Takato looked a little taken aback at how emotional his basketball coached seemed to have become in the past ten minutes. "Second of," the blonde repeated with a sigh, Ryo's hand of support replace by Mimi who enveloped him in a tight hug, "you never, _ever_ load the data of a Digimon like Daemon, even as a Devimon. The Demon Lords are more than just Digimon who sit atop the dog-pile of evil Digimon: they're all old, ancient even, older than almost all other Digimon with a few exceptions and they've all learned how to tie their very existence to the very fabric of the Digital World itself and you cannot kill them. Load them and they'll simply corrupt and take over whatever was foolish enough to try it and they'll pull themselves back up the food chain. It might take them time but they'll always find a way to come back. "

"What do you mean we can't kill them?" Kazu demanded, a little annoyed as the answer though clear had still been somewhat vague in fact.

"Off topic," Mimi chided as she looked back to Sora who nodded, "getting back to the story; one of Daemon's other plans ended up being called _Operation Neo_ but was nothing more than a flashy distraction to hide the real plan. Invasion of earth,"

"The chemical hallucinogen spill in Odaiba ten years ago? An invasion of the city of Tokyo by one of Piedmon's henchmen." Sora explain and Rika was certain she heard both Takato and Kazu whisper, in perfect unison, 'I knew it…!' under their breath and she couldn't help but roll her eyes in slight amusement. _What a pair of nerds…_ "The whole thing was led by a Digimon whose name you probably know from the show: Myotismon, although in reality he had decided he'd gotten as far as he could in the Digital World and instead of raising our world to the ground as retribution for Daemon's apparent destruction like instructed he'd conquer and rule it himself seeing as no one could really challenge him."

"By this point though we had finally learnt about the Crests and had begun tapping into their power," Mimi added, pulling away from Takeru now he seemed to have composed himself, though Rika noted the brunette baker's apprentice did, sneakily as she could, slip her hand into the blonds. "The Royal Knights also provided us with a means to get home, provided we return upon Myotismon's defeat and finish the last part of our supposed destiny."

"We won again," Ryo shrugged one shoulder, "admittedly this time it was by the skin of our own teeth and we caused just as much damage as Myotismon; what with the whole going Mega for the first time and RuinPhoenixmon blasting half of Odaiba to Kingdom Come but a win is a win in that kind of situation regardless of how you got it." It was only after he closed his mouth and Sora's already rigged posture went even more so that the supposed Legendary Tamer realised just how far he'd put his foot in his mouth.

For a long few minutes nobody said anything, the non-Tamer adults all seemed a little confused but the three second generation Tamers all seemed to have realised the same thing. _She did the same thing to her Partner that Takato did to Guilmon when he forced him to become Megidramon – dark evolution._

"Sora," Takato's voice was so soft he might as well have been whispered, shakily he tried to look at his cousin but in the end his eyes fell to the floor in shame. "I know what that's like, the rage, the shame. I… I've forced a dark evolution too," everyone but Rika and Kazu were shocked to hear that as Megidramon, for good reason, had never been discussed or mentioned to anyone who hadn't witnessed the horror; even Ryo hadn't known the full details.

But it seemed to be what Sora needed to hear as after shooting a demanding gaze at Ryo, as if she was accusing him of hiding this from her, she stood up and walked across the room to hug Takato. After they pulled apart, the older redhead pulled the goggle wearing Tamer away from everyone else for a moment, standing in the doorway where they seemed to discuss something in hushed whispers.

"Right, back on track," Ryo coughed as he rubbed the back of his neck and quickly glossed over how two of the group had successfully managed to Biomerge for the first time to destroy Myotismon for good after the vampire Digimon had evolved into an even more powerful form. "True to our word, we returned to the Digital World to finish whatever it was the Sovereigns wanted us to do so badly. Which as we found out, was activate all of the Crests and evolve them to a substantial power level."

"I don't get it," Kazu cut in after a moment, "why would you need to develop and evolve the Crests power if you were only supposed to go to the Digital World one time?"

"For you lot, seemingly," Takeru said maybe a little more harshly than intended because he winced guiltily almost immediately afterwards and Rika felt taken aback, what did she or Kazu have to do with the Crests from the stupid show? "We were beta users if you will, proto-type Tamers used to make sure the Sovereigns could get everything right for when the supposedly prophesied ones who would conquer the Demon Lords once and for all and restore peace and balance to the Digital World for time eternal would appear. The prophecy referring to you lot I'm guessing."

_What…?_

"The Sovereigns were so desperate to see this goal completed they even engineered a new enemy for us to fight just so they could get what they wanted." Mimi murmured as she looked at Rika and Kazu. "The Olympus Twelve had always acted as guardians of the Net– they held no loyalty to the Sovereigns and instead policed the boarders between the Digital World and the Internet so as to keep harmony between the two and act as neutral and fair adjudicators in times of crisis. The Sovereigns saw them as a threat to their rule and found a way to covertly corrupted the group's leader and turn them all into villains bent on conquest and then use us to remove them from the picture entirely."

_Fuck me, and here I thought the Sovereigns were supposed to be the good guys, _Rika didn't know what to say, and she was utterly at a loss. Sure, the Sovereigns hadn't exactly been the friendliest bunch and how they had handled the whole Calumon thing was a little extreme but this… this was something else entirely. Was that all they had been, another set of beta-testers? A means to an end? The redhead didn't know if she preferred that idea or being one of these prophesied Tamers the Sovereigns seemed so desperate to get their hands on, because from the sounds of it she didn't want anything to do the Sovereigns if she had any say in it.

"We overcame the Olympus Twelve in the end, only to be discarded like trash when we were done." Takeru sighed as his shoulders sagged, unlike Ryo and Mimi he seemed more calm about the whole thing, but still sounded betrayed. "The result was that when the Hypnos Foundation was created and started poking around there was no one to help maintain and enforce the barriers between the Digital World and the Internet and you've seen the results for yourselves. The really funny thing is we never learnt any of this until _Daemon_ told us after the Sovereigns desperately pulled us back into the war five years later in an attempt to use us as fodder whilst they waited on you guys to show up."

"Holy shit this is heavy," Kazu said in a whisper as he pulled of his beanie so he could ruffle his hair a moment before pulling the hat back on. "So everything we know; everything we believed about the Digital World is nothing more than a hulking pile of fucking horse shit force feed to us over the years?"

"Kazu…!" Mei scolded, shooting the boy a scathing look because whilst she'd bit her tongue at the boys cussing thus far, even when the boy wasn't her son, she had a limit before it became unacceptable of someone so young to say such vile things.

"I'd actually say that's a pretty fair summary," Ryo nodded before looking over to Takeru, "I mean, your dad made the first series based off of what we told him, but we helped him with any of the changes he wanted to make so it would be more appealing for younger kids who might be chosen someday."

"So the show was you actually passing along your knowledge, sort of…" Rika frowned at the idea, even her own words sounding stupid to hear ears but it sort of made sense. The show was ultimately a message, a visually coded warning to the Tamers who might one day follow them. _Pretty ingenious in a weird sort of way…_

"We figured the kids in the prophecies would probably be pretty young, maybe not even born at the time when the show launched but figured just on the off chance that one of them did see it they'd have an idea of what to expect." Takeru said in clarification. "Though none of the original Tamers or my dad, who was responsible for the first series gave any input or were even consulted when the network ordered a second season."

"The results show," Mimi said sourly, huffily crossing her arms over her chest, "I mean the quality wasn't bad to begin with, but a lot of earlier episodes in the second season are all based off old unused notes, like the Digimon Emperor/evil Tamer being based on Operation Neo and Kimeramon tying in with everything that happened with Millenniummon during the Olympus Twelve incident but past a certain point the quality of the show bombs and it's pretty obvious the writers had no plan or idea what the hell was supposed to come next. Plus, Myotismon came back, _yuck_,"

"I heard they're making another series," Ryo said from his spot next to Mimi, who frowned but said nothing whilst Sora and Takato finally came back to the group at large; the former fighting a genuine rush of tears. "Sora…?"

"Leomon…" was all the redhead had needed to say before the other older Tamers all swapped sombre looks and Takeru even left the room. Why exactly was answered a moment later with the faint sound of rattling steel rang out as a bin was kicked over and an angry yell came from out back behind the bakery. Mimi and Ryo both quickly excused themselves whilst Sora returned to her seat at the table. "I'm sorry; it's just the Leomon your friend seemed to have been partnered with was a good friend of ours. It's frustrating to hear how we've unknowingly lost another friend to a war which has already claimed the lives of so many of our digital friends."

Nobody said anything for a long while, Sora looking over her shoulder every so often to see if any of the others would return. Eventually though it became clear none of the other first generation Tamers would be coming back soon so instead she sighed, and continued the story.

"So, as you've gathered, the destruction of the Olympus Twelve is a large factor in the alternation to the landscape of the Digital World, but not the primary one. In the end the Sovereigns had been backed so far against the wall that they had no choice but to pull us back in, with one issue," Sora shuddered as she spoke, a single name that explained everything, "Diablomon. You see, Piedmon created an altered Diablomon designed especially to move between the worlds and it abused the weakened barriers and via the internet, began abducting the members of the Odaiba Tamers who hadn't been captured by Devimon the first time around."

"Operation Neo: the Tamer Civil War," It wasn't just Sora who looked at her cousin as if to ask how he had known that. Even Rika, who remembered Takato mentioning this Civil War to her earlier was finding it a little odd how Takato seemed to be putting some of this together, did he perhaps know more than he was letting on?

"Yes," Sora nodded eventually, though her pointed gaze didn't move from Takato, "Piedmon also captured Patamon, Takeru's Partner, and successfully revived his lord and master."

"Then what happened?" Rika demanded after Sora paused _again_ to look down at the table top. When the older woman looked up again her face of thunderous and her voice cracked with fury.

"We tried and failed to finish what we had started five years previously and Daemon told us the truth about how the Sovereigns had used us all along, and then came the death and destruction." _Death…? Did… did members of their team bite it? _"After discovering the truth our already fractured and indecisive team seemed torn but Tai, our leader at the time, stupid fool that he was," _Oh God… _Rika thought as she noticed the use of past tense and just how the very mention of this Tai had Sora on the verge of breaking down, yet at the same time there was a longing, a fondness, "Tai decided that even if everyone else was going to try and escape, to return to our world that he was going to stay and fight. Not for the Sovereigns, not for pride or vengeance or of anything but to save as many innocent Digimon as he could. That one decision caused our entire team to implode and so began the Civil War.

"Yamato, Takeru's older brother honestly believed the Digital World deserved whatever fate it had brought upon itself and refused to let Tai kill himself on some fool's errand and so tried to knock some sense into him, quite literally," Sora add before shaking her head, "that was what really kick started the Civil War because Daemon took advantage of the infighting and used the collapsing state of the Digital World to separate all of us and then send our clones after us. Unlike the first iteration of Operation Neo these clones where perfect copies of the original and what little trust had somehow survived to that point quickly died as no one wanted to risk being back stabbed by a clone loyal to Daemon.

"We fought with everything we had but it still wasn't enough this time around as eventually the other Demon Lords decided they wanted a piece of us as well. Of the ten of us that were forcibly dragged back into the Digital World, seven came back only for us to lose another one of our team in hospital days later. I'm sure you've all thought that this is dangerous work and could leave you seriously injured but I bet none of you have stopped to think just how easy it is for certain Digimon out there to simply _kill_ you, most without even trying. Be grateful you've never had to approach your friend's parents only to tell them their child will never come home again. Believe me when I tell you it isn't a pleasant experience."

"… I'm sorry," Rika muttered, feeling like a complete fool after such a spectacular blunder but there was something still nagging at her. Given what she now knew and what Takato had told her earlier there was one question eating at her – the older Tamers had been back in the human world by the time the Deva attacks had started yet not once had they ever appeared to help – nor had they helped fight the D-Reaper.

When Rika had asked – _demanded _– to know why, her answer actually came from Ryo .

"Because I specifically told them not to," he said plainly as though that was all there was to the entire affair. Still, Rika wasn't about to let it drop and to her great surprise, she actually had Kazu on her side demanding a proper explanation: Takato seemed too focused on trying to work something out in his head, "Listen, the situation was more complicated than you could understand what with Millenniummon and the chance of accidentally screwing with the timeline."

"What the hell do you mean screw with the timeline?" Kazu shouted.

"I'd think it'd be obvious if you had half a brain but clearly I was wrong," Ryo snapped back cruelly, glaring at Kazu, "sorry but it will have to do seeing as I don't know words small enough for a monkey to understand. We might have told you what we went through but you'll never _know_. We were weak, crippled and grieving: you should consider yourselves lucky I stupidly gave into my sense of justice and showed up at the bay today before GigaSeadramon could kill any more innocent people."

"_Justice_?" Takato shot back, pushing off the counter to defend his best friend, "seemed much more like you wanted nothing more than revenge with the way you were talking down at the bay."

"That's enough, boys," Takehiro said, almost shouting as he stood up and intervened by standing between the two younger men and the first generation Tamer. "Fighting with each other is hardly going to help matters. You need to be sticking together if you all want to see this through with as few casualties as possible, weren't you listening to your cousin, son? Infighting cost them dearly last time so learn from past mistakes and leave this petty squabbling until after the fact! You'll need to look after one another in the upcoming battles, right Sora?"

"_No_," Ryo seemed to be the only person not floored by the low, hissing response as a look of pure loathing returned to Sora's eyes. "I'm sorry, Uncle Hiro, Aunt Mei but I refuse to fight." Both of Takato's parents looked absolutely horror stuck at the exclamation, but of all the Matsuki's it was Takato who looked the most betrayed by his cousin's words. "The Digital World never really wanted us but that didn't stop it taking everything we had to offer and then some. That world, those in charge, it stole my childhood, it took my innocence and jaded me, it has left me both physically and mentally scared: I've seen more than anyone my age ever should and it has taken the man I love from me. It won't let it take what little I have left. I can't talk for the others but the Digital World can go to hell for all I care because I'm _done _with it once and for all."

So, Sora stood and left, Ryo was hot on her heels and just like that the conversation was over and the remains of the Shinjuku Tamers were once again left along before the oncoming storm.


	10. I've Got No Strings

_**Degrees of Succession**_

* * *

><p><strong>X<strong>

* * *

><p><em>I've got no strings to hold me down<em>  
><em>To make me fret, or make me frown<em>  
><em>I had strings but now I'm free<em>  
><em>There are no strings on me<em>  
><em>I've got no strings so I have fun<em>  
><em>I'm not tied to anyone<em>  
><em>How I love my liberty,<em>  
><em>There are no strings on me!<em>

_I've Got No Strings_ - Dickie Jones

* * *

><p><strong>July Nineteenth<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Rika Makino<strong>

"No one is forcing you to do this, Rika." Renamon spoke softly as the veil of shadow hiding her from onlookers dropped now it was just the two of them, stood side-by-side in an unassuming elevator of a regular looking tenement building that could probably do with a little love. Rika just nodded, slowly. The truth of the matter was she kind of wished someone was forcing her to, maybe it would make things easier. "So, why if you don't mind my asking, are so so determined to do something you are clearly uncomfortable with?"

"Because somebody has to," Rika sighed softly, speaking for the first time since they'd set out that morning. "It's not like Takato is in any state to talk to Sora after yesterday. Just the thought of trusting something like this to Kazu is too much. Ryo, for once in his existence was right, yesterday honestly left me with more questions than answers and Sora is kind of our only option."

"Rika, I agree that there are pressing questions at hand that we need answers to before we can proceed," Renamon bowed her head slightly in agreement before her fur bristled and the towering Digimon did her best impression of a frown, adding: "But surely you yourself understand that whilst things did not go as well as hoped yesterday," Rika gave a slight scoff which translated to _n_o _shit, _"they are not beyond repair but if you force this matter further then they may very well become just that."

"Uh-huh," Rika replied dully, staring a faint spot on the doors of the elevator as it climbed higher and higher to the requested floor. It wasn't that she didn't understand her Partner's point of view on the matter if anything she agreed that this probably would make things worse but she couldn't let things end the way they had the night before.

Although it had taken some time to convince her mother to go along with the entire thing and divulge Sora's address and the pair were able to track the older Tamer down in hopes of another question and answer session. Her mother had taken some convincing, she hadn't liked the idea of her daughter skipping school but at the same time she'd understood enough to realise that if yesterday's battle was anything to go by then the time it took Rika to somehow get out of class could very well be the difference between a lot of people living or dying.

_When did being a Digimon Tamer become so complicated? _It was now, more than ever, Rika found herself wishing for the days of the Devas: before the reality of what it meant to be a Tamer had really taken hold. Whilst the Devas had hardly been enemies to be taken lightly they had a focused goal which in the end would see them retreat to the Digital World and never return even if they won, which the stupid monkey that was Makuramon technically did achieve when he captured Calumon. Now it was all about saving the world from not only the evil Demon Lords but the Digimon Sovereigns as well, both intent on taking the human world for themselves seeing as they couldn't save their own. _Plus who knows what else… _even the D-Reaper hadn't been this bad – although maybe that was because it was highly localised and in the end it was the work of Hypnos and the Monster Makers that had won the day, the Tamers had really just been there to do the heavy lifting.

This however… _this _was a whole new behemoth, this time they were all alone with no back up and no plan.

She wondered if the whole situation was starting to get to her – she'd barely slept and the bags under her eyes proved it. Even her reflection seemed paler than usual, even suited up in casual shorts (it was far to hot for her usual heavy jeans), her usual, needlessly large collection of belts, a baggy black t-shirt with long white sleeves that matched her knee high socks and usual gigantic hoodie which she never seemed to take off and high-tops. Even with her hood pulled up and eyes hidden behind sun-glasses her reflection somehow managed to look worn and ill.

_It's because I didn't sleep, _Rika thought with a slight scowl as the elevator _dinged_ and the doors slowly parted ways. There was no way in hell the pressure was getting to her. Still the lack of sleep didn't explain the odd burning sensation that was starting to run up and down her back, culminating at the base of her spine.

Stepping out of the elevator Rika held up a hand to block the light of sun which heckled her eyes even through her sunglasses – given the building was designed to have open air space like many of the blocks of flats throughout Tokyo. "It doesn't matter what either of us think any more," the redhead said eventually as she felt Renamon's eyes beginning to drill holes in the back of her head as Rika checked the back of her hand to make sure she had the right apartment number. "We're here now so let's get this over with."

So she knocked.

It took Sora a moment to open the door but the older redhead didn't seem the least bit surprised to see who it was that awaited her on the other side when she eventually did. It was odd seeing Sora look so casual, a deep maroon t-shirt fell off of one shoulder and a pair of her dark denim skinny jeans and large white woollen, button-up sweater which was too long in the sleeves. Smiling softly, the older Tamer wordlessly stepped to one saide and cleared a path for the younger girl and Renamon to enter unopposed.

Swapping one last look Tamer and Partner crossed the threshold.

"Sorry for the mess," Sora said weakly as the door clicked shut behind them. The hall was short and led into a large space that was divided by a counter into a living area and a kitchenette. The furniture was plain and rather common of a young woman living alone and the walls were a dull, faded white colour with only a few photographs from years long past dotted around. Rika was just about to take a step further inside when she stepped on something that _roared_ underfoot, startling her as she looked down to see what looked like a plastic Godzilla toy, an uncomfortable feeling stirring in the pit of her stomach at the sight of the thing as looked at it in bewilderment.

Sora laughed softly from behind her, bending down to snatch the toy from the floor and gesturing for Rika to take a seat. "Like I said, I'm sorry about the mess," she said before placing Godzilla aloft on the kitchen counter and following her guest, wrapping her sweater around herself a little tighter before dropping into the armchair across from the spots on the love chair Rika and Renamon had taken.

Still, Rika could feel another set of eyes on her as she took her seat. Sat atop the pouffe by the French doors Rika could see a large pink bird out of the corner of her eyes, watching her intently. _Biyomon_, she'd seen the Digimon enough times to recognise it and know it was now some stuffed toy kept for sentimental reasons as others might. Renamon gave the pink bird a bow of her head to show that despite her stillness the vixen knew very well what she was. The pink bird winked at them briefly before resuming its stuffed toy routine for some reason that escaped the younger Tamer.

"I had a feeling one of you was going to come looking to talk to me after the way I acted last night." Sora added after a moment, letting the acknowledgements play out for a moment. "I'm sorry for that, by the way. Though I'm not going to lie I was kind of hoping it would be Takato…"

"Sorry to disappoint you. Besides, I doubt Takato is in the mood to talk to anyone right now, anyway," Rika remarked sardonically although Sora took the comment with a weak smile, pulling the pillow out from behind her so she could instead cuddle it as she leaned back into her seat. "I've got some questions."

"I think that's fair,"

"If you me don't mind me cutting in for a moment," Renamon spoke but before Rika could begin her interrogation, attracting the attention of both women. "There has been something bothering me ever since your explanation last night," Sora didn't seem surprised to hear that Renamon knew all about the discussion; whether she believed Rika had told her about it or knew about the kitsune's ability to go unseen didn't matter. "To what is this Millenniummon that was spoken of? I have never heard of such a Digimon. I also fail to understand how it's existence somehow creates a situation in which Ryo could supposedly damaged the timeline in which we inhabit."

"I can understand why that might bother you," Sora nodded, lips pursed during a brief pause as she seemed to think about to how to best word her response. "Ultimately I can't say I understand Ryo's connection with Millenniummon any more than either of you. Ryo likes to act confident and as if he always has the answers but the truth is he's very guarded and insecure, especially about his ability as a Tamer given everything that happened to him whilst he was separated from us by Millenniummon. I can't offer you more than that, Ryo might tell you the whole story someday. When he's ready,"

"Thank you," Renamon said, bowing her head slightly – seemingly content with the answer she was given. In all honesty the explanation frustrated Rika but she'd never been one who liked to be kept in the dark about anything and Sora couldn't give her answers which she didn't have.

"The second time," Rika asked, taking over when it became clear that the waiting wasn't going to get her a better answer. "How the hell did you guys even get back to the real world? I mean, when we went we had to have a whole ark-thing sent after us to pull us back into our world."

"The same way we came back when it was to fight Myotismon,"

"That goofy portal thing from the show?" Rika asked incredulously and Sora actually laughed at her response, but nodded.

"The portal was less goofy in reality; the puzzle to open it changes every time the portal is activated," _Huh,_ "After… after we lost Tai we found out that Daemon had taken control of the portal and was going to use it to invade earth whilst the Sovereigns and other Demon Lords were distracted trying to hunt us down. We got there first and used it to escape. The only problem was Daemon could still easily solve the next puzzle and follow us anyway which meant someone had to stay behind and make sure he couldn't."

"What about the Crests, you said they were more than power amplifiers but never actually explained it." Rika quickly moved on, deciding it was best to not let Sora linger to long on the thoughts of fallen friends though it didn't make her wonder how the hell the Generals were suppose to Biomerge if the portal that Daemon had planned to use was gone.

"We each had one of the Crests, seeing as there was ten of us eventually," Sora said as she seemed glad for the quick distraction, "but the truth is the Crests aren't meant to function individually."

"Explain?" Renamon urged and Rika nodded but didn't actually speak. Thinking back on the show, which Takato had made her suffer both season of the only thing she could think off that was similar to this was that the three kids in the second serious each ended up with two eggs bearing different Crests and the whole combination evolution shtick that personally she thought would've been better suited to staying a part of the card game and nothing else.

"The Crests are like coins: they're meant to be paired with one another, each one as a different side of the coin. They compliment and strengthen each other," _Okay, so two halves make a whole but I'm still missing something here…_ "It's why none of us ever able fully unlocked the Crest we bore, because we didn't have the other one to match with it. Though a few of us did get as close as we could. When both Crests are obtained and come into harmony under a single Tamer it's meant to form some sort of key. The Sovereigns referred to it as the Spark."

"I believe I have heard of the Spark of which you speak," Renamon murmured although Sora gave the fox a rather pointed look of disbelief for a brief moment.

"That shouldn't be possible. Only the Sovereigns and the temple guardians were meant to know anything about…" Sora trailed off after a moment, looking back and forth between Rika and her Partner. A moment of this passed and with one last hard look at Renamon, Sora smiled softly and decided not to push the subject further. "So is that all you wanted to know, Rika?" Sora asked in an attempt to coax some life back into the conversation after the brief pause.

"What are they like? The Demon Lords, I mean," Rika asked her final directly related Digital World question and Sora seemed to look at her with an aura of pity, shame and slight hesitation.

In the end the older redhead looked out of the French doors, then to her motionless Partner before turning back to her younger guest. "They're dangerous. The thing that makes them most though is not what you might think." _Well, yeah, no shit. Of course they're dangerous if they're in the middle handing the Sovereigns their asses. _"The Demon Lords have always had a frighteningly human side to them and _that's_ what makes them more dangerous than any other Digimon we've encountered before. It's not they're legions of followers or insane individual power but just how well they seem to comprehend human emotions.

"Rika, the world has gotten progressively more jaded these past few years," Rika just quirked an eyebrow, wondering if the older woman realised who it was she was talking to. "The Demon Lords have been feeding off of that: all the hate, the pornography the self-righteous and envious blog and Twitter posts and everything in between. The internet is a literal buffet of human corruption and filth and the Demon Lords have adopted it better than any other Digimon. Our decadence is the source of their strength and it's only gotten worse since we fought them five years ago. But it's more than that – they think like _us_. These are Digimon who embody human emotions and they blur the line between what it means to be made of flesh and of data. Daemon in particular has always been fascinated by humans; it's one of the reasons he created Operation Neo – the beginnings of a program that would make him more like us."

"He wants to be human?" Renamon asked as her head fell to one side and even Rika felt confused at the idea, face scrunching up in a frown as she tried to wrap her head around the idea.

"Not exactly," Sora shook her own head, chewing her bottom lip for a moment before adding: "Daemon is evil, yes. Pure evil, unquestionably – but he's also a _necessary_ evil. He's the kind of evil that drives people forward, his existence creates problems that must be solved and overcome for the sake of future development. Likewise that's how I think he sees us, he believes Digimon are the superior race but he seems to respect us as a species, he values our tenacity and force of will. Daemon believes he can further the evolution of all Digimon by creating them to be more human-like, with all of our strengths but none of our perceived weakness which he could take out at his own whim."

"So, what? He's out to create the ultimate world filled with his idea of perfect Digimon and rule it himself? Seems pretty by the books to me; punch-clock even."

"His plans don't have to be original for him to be a threat," Sora said in a chiding tone, looking almost disappointed. Clearly she was saying something that Rika wasn't picking up on because she let out a low _humph_ a moment a later when the younger Tamer had just stared at her with a bored look. "Just don't let the cliché-ness of it all mislead you. Daemon is charismatic and knows how to get what he wants: he's not an enemy that can be beaten by brute strength or a show of great force – he's been planning his moves since before either of us were even born and every action he makes serves him in more ways than one."

Rika couldn't help but mutter snarkishly to herself and whilst Sora looked a little annoyed by her attitude she was able to bite back a retort before the conversation could dissolve into an argument. Perhaps she was still feeling guilty about how she had stormed out the previous evening.

Despite the growing tension, Rika pushed on as she needed to know why: how could Sora simply abandon a cause so many of her friends had lost themselves to and make their sacrifices meaningless. When she demanded as much off Sora, the older woman looked both taken aback by the bluntness and sheer audacity of the question whilst trying not to lose her temper.

Rika found the response to be short, simple and it left her dumbfounded: "To live is meaningless?" Sora asked, reigning in her apparent anger and managing to keep her voice level. "What we fought for wasn't the greater good or anything like that as much as Tai wanted to think we somehow had the ability to doll out justice. No, we fought to live. What would it say of me if I threw away my life now after some many have had to pay such high prices to make sure I could even have one? My priorities no longer reside with the Digital World."

Rika made to reply, mouth already open when the sound of a door clicking open echoed across the living space and Renamon instinctively flickered from sight as the younger redhead turned to see a young boy, probably no older than four or so standing in the doorway to what must have been his bedroom. He had wild chocolate brown haired with a slight tan and large eyes, that brightened at the sight of a guest. The boy just smiled at her for a moment before turning to Sora.

"Momma," _What?_ Rika's felt her jaw go slack and her eyes grow wide as she turned to look at Sora's poker face. "I finished cleaning my room. Can I go play now?" _Well... _shit_!_

* * *

><p><strong>Takato Matsuki<strong>

The day had simply faded away into nothing. Takato's parents had thankfully decided to allow him to sleep for what seemed like eternity after the events of the previous day.

It must've been well into the afternoon by the time he eventually came around and Takato knew he should have been in school but instead he lay atop his bed, still dressed in the baggy tank and three quarter shorts from the previous evening as he stared blankly at the ceiling of his bedroom. The Gogglehead was drained physically and emotionally but he was still vaguely aware that Guilmon, who had finally awoken shortly after Sora had left, was watching him from his place curled up on an old duvet on the floor across the room like a giant red guard dog.

In the end Ryo had been right: yesterday's... _experience_ had only left him with an overwhelming sense of uselessness and dozens of fresh new questions which now he might never get answered given how the evening had ended. What stung worst of all was the sense of betrayal that the incident had left him with, Sora had always been someone he thought he could look up to and rely on in times of need. The pair of cousins though distanced by age still shared a close bond and many of the same interests – the redhead had been the one to introduce him to Digimon in the first place for crying out loud. This time it didn't look like she was going to come through for him in the end, the time it mattered more than ever before.

Earlier in the day he'd be briefly roused from his slumber, his foggy mind only taking in spurts of his father's shouting, directed down a phone as his aunt. After the previous evenings discussion it more than obvious that the woman had known about Sora's past and his father was desperate in his attempts to get his older sister to reason with her daughter. The angry shouting towards the end of the phone call though seemed to suggest that his aunt stood by her daughter in her decision. It was with a heavy sigh and a growing sense of hopelessness that Takato had ventured back into the nothingness of his dream.

That had the end of it then. They were completely alone.

Now that he had come around again, his thoughts a little more gathered with his mind rested Takato truthfully couldn't hold it against his cousin for refusing the call to arms. He understood her reasons after hearing the story of the original Tamers and how callously the Sovereigns had used them – she was older now, damaged and jaded with new priorities and people to take care of, namely Taiki.

It didn't mean the refusal stung any less.

Takato took a moment to roll over onto his side, his back now facing Guilmon, he found himself staring at a spot on the wall and let his groggy mind run further afield with the questions plaguing him. _What does the Red-Eyed Man have to do with any of this…? _Was he perhaps connected to the Operation Neo which had be mentioned several times? It would make sense to an extent as he couldn't possibly know the things he knew any other way. Nothing matching the man's description had come up in the conversation and neither Sora nor any of the other older Tamers had made any mention of him whatsoever which left him doubting.

And what about the Olympians: Alice had said they had nothing to do with the Olympus Twelve, who had seemingly all be long dead, so just who, or _what_, where they?

What really disturbed him though was that Guardromon still hadn't returned and there was no word from Jen or Kenta, or even Juri for that matter. He and Rika were the only ones who could fight if all the other other older Tamers sided with Sora, which Ryo clearly had. _Just how are we supposed to come out the other end of this we're surrounded on every side…?_

"Knock, knock," a soft whisper came from the door as it creaked open and Takato lifted his head slightly to see Mimi standing in the doorway. Her long caramel hair was loose and wavy today, dressed in light stylized, denim skinnies with thread running up the sides and one of those floral print spaghetti strap tops with frilly waist line with an old Tokyo University sports jacket. "I know Friday is usually my day off but I thought, given how things ended last night, that I should probably come in and apologise to your parents. When they told me you were here I figured you might want to talk. If you don't then I can leave–"

"Thanks, Mimi. It really means a lot that you'd come up here and see me," Takato said before rolling over onto his other side and sitting up, gesturing for Mimi to come in. She smiled at the invitation, cautiously entering the room, only to be followed by a short green, plant-like creature with large black eyes. _Palmon, _Takato thought recognising the Digimon instantly as he suddenly realised which of the characters in the show was based of Mimi and found it rather hard to believe the bratty and whinny rich girl from the show was somehow based of the same woman how sat down in his wheelie chair. _Either their characters were really exaggerated or Mimi sure grew up over the years._

Guilmon looked up from his duvet, glancing at Palmon once before then looking to Mimi. Giving a toothy grin as he moved over slightly so as the smaller Digimon could share a spot on the duvet with him. Though clearly surprised at first Palmon accepted the invitation with a quiet thank you that only made the large saurian grin wider before the pair of Digimon seemed to sink into their own hushed conversation.

"Again, I'm sorry with how things ended last night, Takato, really,"

"Don't be," he shook his head before leaning against the wall behind him. Takato paused for a moment, then added: "I get it. I just wish things could be different. I spent so long wishing for Guilmon to come back to me but all it's resulted in is dredging up old memories and reopening wounds that should have been left alone. The worse part of it all is that a part of me doesn't even feel guilty because I have my Partner back. Still, I won't lie I feel betrayed, I guess when I found out about you guys I expected that even if only one of you came through for us it would be Sora."

"You're a good kid, Takato," Mimi said as she slipped her shoes off and pulled her legs up to sit Indian-style, "you're honest to a fault and you try so hard to be forgiving and understanding, it's really admirable. But I want you to know that I don't hold it against you for being upset or feeling betrayed given how long we've kept this from you. I'm sure you understand though that is just as hard for us as it you newer guys," Takato did understand it, he really did but wouldn't deny he was still a little confused on a few things. "We've spent the last few acting as emotional crutches for each other whilst keeping ourselves sane and now that your generation has shown up it's just like we're expected to step aside and accept that everything we went through was a meaningless sacrifice to make sure you guys could get to this point."

"I get that, I do " Takato nodded quickly, hoping Mimi would understand he wasn't blaming her in particular nor was he trying to belittle all of the struggles the original Tamers went through. "It doesn't mean it doesn't hurt any less." Mimi didn't seem to have an answer to that so instead she just sighed; looking down at the rug beneath his chair, in the end the goggle wearing Tamers own curiosity got the better of him. "Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

"Not at all,"

"Why did Coach Takeru take Leomon's death so hard? I mean I've never seen him get like that before," Takato asked and Mimi hummed softly, nodding her head.

"I'm sure Sora mentioned Yamato, Takeru's older brother at some point last night?" Takato nodded. "Yamato was one of those that didn't make it home the second time. Unlike the others though we never actually found out what happened to him – the fool stayed behind to destroy the portal that connect the human and digital worlds which Daemon was planning to use. We still don't know if he's out there in the Digital World somewhere trying to find a way home. It's a source of frustration for Takeru and losing a dear friend like Leomon and not even knowing it probably just served to remind how little he knows about his brother's condition.

"We're all damaged and dysfunctional people Takato," Mimi smiled sadly as she looked to one side, gazing out the window at the perfect July afternoon. "Takeru carries around a lot of self-loathing and blame over the fact his brother never came back with us. I couldn't sleep without suffering from horrible nightmares and went into a depression for a long time after we came back, I still see a a psychologist one occasion when I feel like it's getting bad again even if I'm no longer on antidepressants. Sora has let herself become bitter and angry when it comes to anything related to the Digital World."

"…Tai was never killed in a hit in run, was he? He was one of the people who didn't come back," Mimi bit her lip at the sudden bluntness of the question but in the end she nodded whilst Palmon wondered over to place a hand over of her Partner's. "How…?"

"Alphamon," Takato's eyes went wide at the name and if he hadn't been seated on his bed the response probably would have floored him. Every fan of the Digimon franchise knew the name Alphamon; said to be one of the most powerful Digimon in existence, only three copies of the Alphamon card were ever printed and nowadays they were worth thousands – if not millions – _each_. Alphamon was also supposed to be a hermit and hero of the Digital World: the living incarnation of justice. "After the Sovereigns learned of what Daemon had told us and Tai was gunning for them just as much as the Demon Lords they sent what was left of the Royal Knights still loyal to them after us.

"Still," the older Tamer sighed as she closed her eyes as her voice cracked a little, doing her best not to cry, "we had our friends among their ranks and in the end the only one we had to deal directly with was their leader who rolled over all of us at once. Tai knew Alphamon was after him though and used that so the rest of us could escape. The last time any of us saw the idiot was when, as WarGreymon, he got himself impaled through the chest and that's when our mission went from fighting for some sort of so-called justice to getting the hell out of the Digital World."

Takato had always imagined the leader of the Royal Knights as a paragon of justice and equality but it seemed the truth of it was that Alphamon was nothing more than an attack dog with a big stick. One who'd killed the leader of the previous generation of Tamers – his cousin's boyfriend. A man whose funeral he had attended thinking that the loss was due to some drunk driver never to be heard from again.

_Kazu was right, this is heavy, _ruffling his hair he tried to formulate some sort of condolence. Nothing came and he was left to sit there, mouth hanging open slightly as he did his best to think of _anything_ to say. In the end the silence left him with a horrified feeling in his gut as a rather dark though struck him and he needed to ask the question now plaguing him.

"Do you think they'll send him - Alphamon - to finish the job he started five years ago…?" It seemed like a rather morbid thing to ask, even Takato with all his social grace realised that much but he needed to know if one of the strongest Digimon in existence might decide to weigh in the outcome of the war that now loomed over them.

"I honestly don't know," Mimi shook her head, "given how it was the Generals who came through first I'd guess that means the Demon Lords are winning right now. Even then we were in the Digital World for nearly two days after losing Tai and Alphamon never came after us so either the Sovereigns only really wanted him or Alphamon suffered enough damage to deter him finishing things then. All I can say is that you're not alone in this,"

"You'll fight with us?"

"Maybe not very well, but I'll do what I can," Mimi joked weakly as she stuck her tongue out at him, "You have to understand Takato I've never been good with violence and even at the Mega-level I'd consider myself to be possibly the weakest of the older Tamers and I can't offer you much of anything else in this but I feel like that this is the choice Tai would make if he was here and I believe that's worth something. I don't want my friend to have died for nothing."

"What about the others…?" Takato asked as a sense of hope filled his chest for the first time in days. It was only a little thing but in all honesty it was the closest thing he'd had to unambiguously good news since Guilmon had returned to him.

"I can't talk for them but I think Takeru will fight, despite all the anger and shame he carries around he has a lot of faith in you younger Tamers despite the odds so don't take his comments from last night to heart." Takato smiled for what felt like the first time in forever, one which Mimi returned before she looked briefly out of the window. "Ryo has always been a wildcard and Hikari is even more damaged than Sora and that's _really_ saying something. Koushiro… I haven't heard from him in over a year so I couldn't even tell you what he might be thinking."

"There's one more thing that's kind of been bugging me," Takato said as he rubbed his left arm a little, his entire body felted bruised and sore after yesterday but of all the things that bothered him it was the itch in his arm that had been slowly getting worse all day. It'd started as a faint tickling sensation but now it was starting to feel like someone was holding a piping hot bowl to his bare skin and it was steadily getting worse. "What the hell is this prophecy you guys kept talking about?"

Mimi opened her mouth to answer, but it was in that moment that Guilmon, who had returned to his light nap, snapped awake, uncurling as he rose from his duvet. "Members five shall stand upon the precipice of oblivion: five who have learnt to harness the fabric of the Digital World and walk among the planes as they please. They who bear the burdens of virtue twice shall stand where all others would fall. First will come the one who speaks of conquests then war shall descend upon all planes of existence and it will be followed by a figured cloaked in naught but famine and only death itself shall dare to follow where the red rider dare tread and unto them shall be born the next age whilst seven trumpets sound and the future of both worlds is decided upon the steps to the Gate of Sin where the beast shall make its final stand."

"How… how did you know _any_ that?" Mimi stammered and even Takato was more than a little freaked out – this was the second time Guilmon had done this since his return two days before. _First the thing with GigaSeadramon now this… _he was so taken aback that he missed Guilmon's form flicker slightly and become transparent before solidifying again before anyone could notice.

"First the dragon by sea, then the one of wood and strings," Takato murmured to himself as he recalled the quasi-prophecy made the day before. "Pinochimon is next." Meanwhile Guilmon didn't even seem to realise he had said anything in the first place and was more concerned about why he was suddenly standing up. Takato was still trying to commit the whole thing to memory before Mimi grabbed his shoulders and leaned into until their faces were inches apart; fear and trepidation clear in her eyes.

Looked utterly terrified, Mimi demanded: "Pinochimon…? What do you mean he's _next_?" Takato tried to pull away slightly; a little unnerved by how panicky the last few minutes had made Mimi. He did his best to explain though, repeating the prediction Guilmon had made shortly before GigaSeadramon had materialized in the middle of Tokyo Bay. "Oh god, why _him_? Anyone but him."

"Is he worse than GigaSeadramon?" Guilmon asked, sounding nervous and Mimi looked genuinely terrified at the very mention of the General.

"Pinochimon is possibly the strongest of the Seven Generals outside of Piedmon and Tactimon; he's _Lucemon's _second in command," Mimi said after taking a deep breath to try and calm herself and failing. "With his master gone Pinochimon might as well have replaced him altogether as he effectively absorbed all of his fallen master's power upon his defeat. You can be certain that if Piedmon somehow managed to actually get Pinochimon to come here he won't come alone. Neither will Machinedramon. They'll bring miniature armies with them and they'll raise Tokyo to the ground before Piedmon or any of the Demon Lords can even get here."

"That's bad," Guilmon whispered as his ears drooped.

As if to prove his Partner's point, Takato's Digivice suddenly let out an awful wail as the alarm sounded just as it had prior to GigaSeadramon's appearance. As Takato scrambled to try and grab the device from its spot on his desk a torrent of pain shot up his left arm and a part of him wondered if he was somehow having a stroke as he floundered and plummeted off of his bed and hit the ground hard as he felt a huge headache coming on.

The pain quickly intensified to the point where Takato was trying not to scream and Mimi was on the floor next to him, shouting his name but he could barely hear her over the ringing in his own ears. _What's happening to me…? _In the end the pain dulled as quickly as it had spiked and the feeling in his arm went back to a numbing tingling sensation as he was left panting on the floor between his desk and bed.

"Takato…?" Mimi whispered as his parents came crashing through the door, demanding to know what was going on. Shaking his head the goggle wearing boy sat up, propping himself against the cold wood of his desk, blindly fumbling overhead in an attempt to find his Digivice. Taking one last deep breath, he closed his hand around the device he sought and pulled it down into view. The words _Category Four_ flashed red before his eyes.

_Pinochimon… _he realise with a pained grunt as tried to stand up, only for Mimi to put her hands on his shoulder and force him back down.

"You did enough holding GigaSeadramon off yesterday," Mimi shook her head as she looked over to Palmon, who nodded her agreement. "You're still not in any condition to go back out there, either of you," she added turning to Guilmon, "leave this one to us. We have a scored to settle with that pile of firewood anyway,"

"Whether we're ready or not doesn't matter," Takato hissed as he shrugged Mimi off and stood up and tried to find his balance, head swimming with the sudden rush of having stood so quickly. "This is my mission, because Guilmon came back to me and everything happens for a reason: so we could fight this threat together. Live today, fight tomorrow so others need not."

"You better come back in one piece, son," his father said before anyone else could say something, putting his hands on his mother's shoulder before she could stammer out some form of protest. His parents exchanged brief looks with one another; both knew that they couldn't stop him although his mother looked ready to try regardless. In the end it was his father who turned back to him with a grim expression. "Promise you'll come back safe. I'd hate to have to ground you for getting yourself killed."

"That would suck kind of hard," Takato chuckled weakly as a part of him finally seemed to realise how hard this must've been for his parents, especially after the state the others had brought him home in yesterday and then the entire conversation with Sora. Still, his father ever the optimist was trying to lighten the situation and the young Tamer found he'd never really appreciated that side of the man as much as he did at that moment. Shrugging off the last of the fog that swam on the edges of his mind, Takato managed to walk across his bedroom to where his parents stood huddle together and he embraced them both. "I'll come back. That's a promise."

"You better," his mother hissed into his chest and Takato chuckled slightly, his mother having done her best to sound threatening when it obvious she was trying not to cry. It seemed bizarre that the idea of him going to fight a Digimon could garner such a reaction, but the truth of it was he wasn't simply going to go take care of some rogue Digimon – he was going to war.

The three members of the Matsuki family finally broke apart and Takato turned to grab his Digivice and his hoodie, seeing as he didn't have time to change into anything else but Mimi was holding up the very objects he sought, a determined look on her face.

"C'mon," she said as Palmon and Guilmon rallied behind her, "we have to make sure a certain puppet doesn't miss his appointment with the wood chipper."

* * *

><p>"Looks like a trip down memory lane," Takato said to Guilmon as they sprinted side-by-side down the surprisingly quiet street, running at top speeds towards Yodobashi Elementary School. <em>I had really hoped never to have to come back here, <em>Takato though as the school building came into view. Thankfully, after realising just where Pinochimon was going to materialise, Mimi had told him that Yodobashi was among the large number of schools which had not opened that day, instead sending the students home for their own safety.

Skidding around a corner just like old times the goggle wearing Tamer spotted the closed school gate a little further down the road. Behind the gates however was a giant sphere, so large that it had consumed the entirety of the schools grounds which suddenly cracked clean in half with such force that both Takato and Mimi and their Partners were thrown through the air like rag-dolls as the school gates took to the sky and earth shuddered and cracked, stone blasting skywards as the school building collapsed in on itself with the sheer force of the shockwave.

Groaning, a part of Takato was really wishing he had listened to Mimi. One knock back and his head was swimming and everything ached as he tried to push himself up onto to his elbows. The strange pale blue fog rolled out from the grounds of what used to be Yodobashi Elementary, glass still raining down from the buildings on either side of the street as cars, cracked, crushed and upturned littered the middle of the road whilst lamps stood twisted and bent and the nearby fire hydrant had ruptured, showing them all in a rush of water.

That's when he heard it: a softly _whistling_ followed by someone singing a faint little tune that made the hair on Takato's arm stand up.

_Oh god… _he thought, panicking as the waves of fog began to part like the red sea and the shadow of a colossal figure stood in the space where the school gates had once been, _that's no puppet…! _The brunette's eyes when wide as the thing that greeted him was the last thing he had expected to see.

Towering over him was what must've been a huge figure, nearly thirteen feet tall and made from what looked to be glimmering greyish-black layered Chrome Digizoid plating, a giant steel marionette with its string replaced by chains of solid red light. Its hand and face were skeletal-like with less plating than the rest of the Digimon's heavily armoured body, a few gears and cogs spinning in its chest as the large core in the centre pulsed a pale blue with activity. From the slight slits and groves in chest and arm Takato could see gears and joints pumping and moving as the gigantic puppet-like monstrosity of a thing turned to look there way. A long thing cylinder shot out of a slot on the inside of the Digimon's right forearm. Takato realised the whistling was actually a recording and the thing looked upon him with cold, glowing blue eyes that seemed to smoke as a puppet's cross made of solid red light flickered into existence on its back. The thing began to walk towards him, clicking a button on the cylinder that had shot from its arm and the thing _clicked _before splitting down the middle, more parts shooting out and form a long haft tipped by a large rounded maul made of eerie blue light.

_Looks like someone got an upgrade… _Takato thought as he scrambled back slightly, wincing when his head smacked off a large, upturned piece of what used to be the pavement. Throwing a quick glance at his wrist he saw the name UlTechPinochimon.

"I've got no strings to hold me down, to make me fret, or make me frown. I had strings but now I'm free. There are no strings on me." Takato could only gulp as the haunting melody from _Pinocchio_ rang out across the street and this new, improved UlTechPinochimon towered over him and blocked the sun from view. As the mechanical puppet spoke the mist suddenly jerked back to reveal a small army of Guardromon, Mekanorimon and Blimpmon all however in the air above what used to be the school. The mist of data suddenly began to regroup, forming in a giant cube which then pivoted slightly before speeding off in the direction of the coast, escorted by the small army.

"This is _our_ world now." UlTechPinochimon said, speaking properly for the first time in a low, nasally gravel that made Takato gulp as he realised just how deep he was in it this time as a pair of fresh arrivals flanked the General: a pair of Boltmon, their axes at the ready. "You'll make a nice addition to my collection,"

"Aw… _nuts_," Takato whispered, panic stricken, as he closed his eyes whilst UlTechPinochimon reached down to grab him as the world went black and he waited for the fate about to befall him.


	11. Iodine

_**Degrees of Succession**_

* * *

><p><strong>XI<strong>

* * *

><p><em>I say I wanna be happy, but I quickly forget<em>  
><em>Will I sabotage all the good I've got left?<em>  
><em>Depression's like a big fur coat,<em>  
><em>It's made of dead things but it keeps me warm<em>

_"Crazy" is, I believe, the medical term_  
><em>When we wanna recover, but we don't wanna learn<em>  
><em>Keep breaking what's been fixed a thousand times<em>  
><em>And gimme some more of that iodine<em>

_Iodine _- Icon For Hire

* * *

><p><strong>July N<strong>**ineteenth**

* * *

><p><strong>Sora Takenouchi<strong>

_It seemed like an eternity ago when Tai had pledged what remained of the group to help save the Digital World one last time when in reality it had been a handful of hours at most. Dukemon, forever his usual blunt and standoffish self, had ordered them all to rest as there was nothing more to be done with what little daylight remained. No one liked being order around by the Royal Knight but they'd all complied; the day had certainly drained them far more than anyone would care to admit._

_Leomon had once more miraculously produced sleeping bags and blankets before he, Wizardmon and Dukemon all huddle together– most likely to discuss who would keep first watch. Everyone had grabbed a sleeping bag in silence and drifted into their own little spaces for solitude. The entire thing was__ a giant mess, Sora thought as she sat around the dying light of the camp-fire and watched Tai sit down against one of the back walls and wrap himself in a spare blanket. _

_ It was typical that everything would all come to a head like this all at once. To think a little over two weeks ago their biggest problem had been how the hell they were going to tell everyone about the forth coming baby. Closing her eyes, Sora gathered up her own sleeping bag, casting one last glance back at Agumon and Biyomon who sat slouched against one another for support, snoring in stereo. Shaking her head in bemusement, the redhead headed over to her long time boyfriend, an apology in the works, _

_"Can't sleep either, huh?" Sora asked when she reached him,__ wrapped in a blanket of her own with her sleeping bag held tightly against her, gazing nervously at him. Tai looked at her for a long moment as though mulling over something in his mind, leaving her to shift nervously as she waited. __"Listen, Tai about how I acted earlier..." the Victory Tamer rolled his eyes before shifting to the side slightly to make room on top of his sleeping bag for her without a word._

_Even before before that fateful Christmas Eve three years ago the pair of them had always been able to understand one another on a deeper level than most. She might have wanted to say sorry about loud, but Tai had already known she'd __been in shock and maybe a part of her was in denial because as much as she liked to pretend otherwise Sora didn't like it when she lost control. __More often than not she would withdrawn and everyone else out whilst trying to internally regroup, making her more snappish and short tempered than usual when people tried to coax her back out of her shell before she was ready to try and deal with the situation again. Tai knew this all to well and let her gather herself without forcing the issue because despite what others might think Tai was highly perceptive and smarter than most gave him credit for. _

_Tai was also probably pretty guilty of being highly on edge –they all were– and more temperamental than usual. Yamato challenging his authority, having __seemed to lose all faith in him to make the right call and was questioning his choices so both of them benefited from the period of space. Sora knew her boyfriend was probably already working on how to get __Yamato on his side again because, honestly, things had been complicated enough without them having to deal whatever was causing the friction between Tai and his best friend. _

_In the end Sora complied quickly as possible, snuggling up against Tai as he wrapped a possessive arm tight around her waist, using his other hand to adjust the blankets as best he could to make sure they both stay warmed._

_"We'll call it square after the way I freaked out when told me you were pregnant, yeah?" Tai whispered into her hair and Sora made a noise that meant she was okay with that trade. Tai's reaction had been nothing beyond shock and panic at first. He'd quickly assured her though as her own panic grew that __it wasn't that he didn't want to have the child– the timing just could not have been worse - which she whole heartedly agreed with. __After getting over the initial shock Tai had be vocal about how he couldn't wait to have his own little mini-me who he could teach to play soccer and take to the arcades, explain girls to him and buy him his first beer._

_His excitement had been infectious and Sora knew after they had somehow survived their first year together as a couple that if she was going to spend the rest of her life with anyone it would be the pain in the ass soccer obsessed goof ball. Despite being the bearer of the Crest of Love, Sora had never really believe in the concept of a soul mate despite believing she could happily spend the rest of his life with Tai, a belief her boyfriend shared, it was more that after seeing how their parents' marriage was they realised that the _one_ did not refer to your one true love but rather to the one person on earth who somehow had the patience to put up with all your bullshit for the rest of their lives._

_"They still don't know," Tai whispered in her ear and she nodded against his chest. "We're going to _have_ to tell them now. No hiding it when we're stuck here like this. Any ideas,"_

_"Why are you asking me, you're the one that always comes up with the plan," Sora murmured back sleepily. _

_"Then you always point out how stupid my plan is," _

_"We still always end up going through with it though," More often than not because no one had a better alternative. "We're just going to have to come out and say it. First thing in the morning before breakfast, quick and painless like a band aid." _

_"I want some of the band aids you're using," Tai joked as he ran a hand up and down the base of her spine, stroking the chin through her top, careful to avoid her scar though. "This is pretty fucked up, huh?" He murmured in her ear._

_"Yeah, you could say that."_

_"I'll get us out of here," Tai said groggily as his mind seemingly went into shut down, "you know that right? I did it once and I'll do it again. I promise." He half yawned, hearing Sora chuckle, her breath tickling his skin._

_"Don't make a girl a promise you can't keep, stupid Tai,"_

"I finished cleaning my room. Can I go play now?" Sora blinked for a moment as she realised she must've spaced out for a second.

Pushing off the arms of her chair, Sora smiled as she walked around and squatted in front of her son; "Okay. _But_," she added with a smile, looking over the boy's shoulder to see his room was indeed _cleaner_ than earlier. It was a start, the young mother supposed, wishing that of all the things for the boy take after his father in, why did it have to be his reluctance to preform household chores? "You know the rules, one floor down to go see Akari is fine but if you want to go anywhere else you need to come back here and ask me, okay?" The boy nodded, running over to give her a tight hug and she scooped him up tightly almost crushing him against her.

"_Momma_," Taiki said, muffled against her, "crushing me!"

"Fine," Sora said in mock hurt as her son finally managed to wriggle out of her grasp, ruffling his hair much to his dislike. _He really _is_ his father son, _"Remember Granny will be here tonight for dinner so you best not be later back." Taiki nodded, grinning widely, turning to leave he waved politely to Rika before dashing for the front door.

"I didn't know," Rika said softly from he seat as the front door clicked shut. At the same moment, Biyomon dropped her stuffed animal facade and Renamon flickered back into view as the younger redhead looked to her, expression confused and a little guilty. "When?"

"I found out a few days before people started getting pulled into the Digital World a second time. His name is Taiki," Sora said as she grabbed a photo frame from one of the table-stands, before passing it to Rika.

It was one of those multi-frame ones, it was the one with a picture of her younger self and Tai huddle together, wrapped in scarves, gloves and earmuffs, awkward teenagers in large coats swapping Christmas gifts and blushing furiously as they smiled whilst doing their best to not look one another in the eye. It was their first date. Even to this date remained Sora's favourite photo of her and Tai together. The second was from the year before; it had been Taiki's third birthday and the little boy was sat on his Sora's lap as she tickled him furiously whilst the candles on the large soccer ball birthday cake melted down to stumps.

"Tai was so excited when I told him," Sora herself felt a large smile take to her face as she recounted the tale, recalling Tai's goofy expression of awestruck excitement. "We were about to tell our friends and family the day Ryo disappeared. I remember the two of us arguing over who had to be one that told our parents about my getting pregnant. You have to understand Rika my family is small, and it's broken. My son will never know his father and I can't take the chance he'll have to grow up without me too. I just can't take that risk, I _need_ to protect him."

"What about Takato? Isn't he family? Doesn't _he_ need your protection?" _That_ stung.

"Takato hasn't need me to protect him in a long time," Sora replied coolly but even to her own ears her words lack conviction or belief. Honestly, she was trapped and no choice she could make from this point would be the right one. No matter what she decided she still turned her back on someone. That, and she just couldn't bare the thought of Taiki growing up without either parent. "Maybe you're right, but Taiki needs me more. My friends all know their own limits and I trust them to make the choice that's right for them – because I do believe some of them will help you. I also believe that Takato and the rest of you will come through in the end, that'll you'll come back alive."

"It's not that you don't want to fight, is it? You _can't_." Rika asked, after a moment Sora nodded. It only took her a brief moment to hold up a hand so as to try and hide behind it and mask her years but it was obvious the younger woman had already seen them when she looked away in shame. Truthfully the question had probably be rhetorical but the older woman still felt the need to try and defend her decision but in the end the matter was left at that and the pair were left in a long, awkward silence.

In the end in appeared the conversation was every bit as difficult as Sora had dreaded it would be. Watching Rika shift uncomfortably under her gaze she knew it wasn't quite over yet as there was something she still needed to do if the younger redhead was truly to understand what lay ahead. It was honestly both a little unnerving and humorous when Sora realised just how alike Rika was to her younger self: fiery and proud, knowing exactly what she wanted and how to get it, a short fuse on her rather wicked tongue and stubborn to the point of idiocy with a caring heart buried deep beneath the tough girl act, she had the nature of a protective mother bear even if she didn't want to admit it. On the flip side she could glean an uncertainty in the way Rika carried herself, that underneath the outwardly strong willed girl lurked a mess of insecurities and self-doubt, the need to find acceptances from others even if that meant compromising a little of who she was because at the end of the day she just wanted to belong.

Or rather Rika had chosen to hide beneath layers of baggy clothing - the hoodie was to deliberate in its size to be an accident. Sighing, Sora knew all to well the thing that probably haunted the younger girl most. Clearly she had a certain expectation of herself from youth and puberty had kicked that idea to the curb. Steeling herself, the older woman knew what need to come next even if she would feel disgusted with herself for it later. _It's for her own good. _

"You're hiding, Rika," taken aback and clearly bewildered, Rika turned to look at her when Sora pointed at the hoodie, "you're insecure when it comes to your body, at least your chest and curves, right? Given your wandering around in those shorts your legs aren't the thing that eat away at you at night. Let me guess, flat as a board?"

"_What_?" Rika screamed, jumping from her seat and Sora closed her eyes from a moment, before standing up to match the girl, reaching out for the zip of the hoodie and yanking it down. _No, not flat as a board, the opposite,_ The surprise must've shown on her face as Rika took the opportunity to take a step back; the teen was much curvier that Sora ever would have guessed and that certainly explained it all.

Rika wasn't subconscious over her lack of curves but was clearly uncomfortable with a body she never expected she would have. Slim and lithe was probably what she had expected but instead she had gained respectable hips, a taut waist and a chest other girls might be envious of.

"Huh, well," _God, I really don't want to say this, _"at least you're smart enough to realise such lovely curves are wasted on a someone like you."

"How dare you," Renamon hissed, advancing on her but before she could close the gap Sora made a quick gun with her fingers and fired it at Rika.

"If I were Lilithmon, you're be dead right now," Sora said without preamble, stunning everyone but Biyomon. "Rika, please don't take this the wrong way but I see a lot of the girl I used to be in you and that will make your a prime target for Lilithmon. I warned you earlier about Daemon, but out of all the Demon Lords the one you should truly be afraid of is his mistress. She'll take one look at you as you are now and instantly know what to say to tear you apart piece by piece. It's what she did to me."

As if to prove a point, Sora took a moment to take of her sweater before pulling her top up for a moment and turn round: though she couldn't see, Sora heard the knock of someone taking a step back into furniture. The faded burn scar which cut across most of her back was something that Myotismon had left her with during the battle which had led to the release of RuinPhoinexmon. Even though it had healed well and she long since accepted the scar as a part of herself (the idea of a skin-graft had been discussed but in the end Sora had decided against it largely as the scar was a reminder of past mistakes and failures and a symbol of her resolve to better herself), it wasn't exactly something she went around showing to strangers.

"This was something Myotismon gifted me," Sora explained when she dropped her top back down and grabbed her sweater to pull it back on. "It took me a long time to come to terms with that scar and even now I still haven't warn a backless top, a dress or even a swimsuit since I got it. This was the inroad for Lilithmon when it came to getting inside my head and that's all she needs. The smallest things is all it will take for her to get more and more out of you as she builds off every successful scratch at your mental fortitude. For you she'll see your body confidence issues a mile off and I'm scarred for you if you have to face her, Rika.

"I know I can't just tell you to get over it," Sora smiled as she looked at Rika, who had stayed silent the entire time, "I know from personal experience body issues isn't something you can magically get over when someone tells you to. At the very least you need to find someone way to come to peace with it if nothing else."

"I never wanted a body like this," Rika said softly as she dropped back down on to the love seat, looking defeated, "I... I just feel so _awkward_ in my own body, I just feel like my body is out to rebel against me and what I want to do. Not only that but before when people looked at me it was things like my hair or to judge how I clearly wasn't fully Japanese, now when they see me all they see is my _curves_. I hate it. I just want someone to see _me_. How... how do I do it, Sora?"

"I can't tell you." Sora shook her head as she dropped back into her own seat. "It's something we all have to learn on our own, as cliché and frustrating as that might sound. Maybe, just maybe though, if you stop trying to hide behind and bury yourself in baggy clothes you might realise that it isn't all bad, or you it might only enforce what you already think but sooner or later you're going to have to face this because like it or now, it's who you are now."

Shaking her head Rika banished such thoughts before standing up: "Thank you, for everything," she said looking to Renamon who nodded and the pair stood up once more. "We should probably be going now."

"Don't let your doubts drag you down," Biyomon chirped as the pair of them passed her, looking down at the small pink bird Rika blinked. "Remember that whilst we might not be out there with you it doesn't mean we won't be there if you need us in others ways. It's okay to be self concious over things and make mistakes, there's no better way to learn than to struggle through it all!"

"She's right you know?" Sora said as she lifted a hand to put on Rika's shoulder, stopping her in her tracks. "Doubts and insecurities are a perfectly human and isn't doesn't make you weak to suffer from them. If anything it only makes you strong because when you do overcome them, what will stop you then? I see a lot strength inside you, Rika and I believe you'll find it in time. Lilithmon will come for you eventually and she'' try to drag you down into the muck and break your spirit but you've got what it takes to win out over her because you've got a heart of gold and the courage to stand up for your friends. Be there for them and know that they'll do the same for you.

"Most of all," Sora added as she stood up one last time, drawing the younger girl in the hug, "remember that you're beautiful in body and soul - even if you might not think so. And _no_ one can take that away from you."

As they pulled apart Sora could see Rika was about to reply, but her Digivice went off with a shrill shriek. "Looks like they're singing our song," Renamon nodded her head and before Rika could thank Sora one last time and leave, the older woman just held up her hand, the message clear: _Go._

"Think they'll manage?" Biyomon asked after after a long pause, Rika and Renamon long gone from the apartment.

"I do," Sora nodded, smiling, "I really think she's something special, Biyomon. She just hasn't accepted it yet it all. All the new Tamers are really, they'll all do great. I just know it,"

* * *

><p><strong>Juri Katō <strong>

It'd been an odd sort of morning for Juri when her father had come to her and told her that he would prefer it if she stayed home that day.

She really should've expected it given Juri, just like the rest of the world by this point, had seen the brief amount of footage of the Digimon who had appeared in the human world (the first in five years to her knowledge) and then proceeded to blow the Rainbow Bridge to Kingdom Come.

Juri was a smart enough understand that her father realised what the previous day's events meant and she was secretly a little relieved when she and her little brother were told they were being kept at home that day. She and her psychiatrist still often talked about monsters – her poor shrink thought it was all metaphorical – but even including her experience with the D-Reaper Juri had never seen such a callous and cruel act carried out with so little remorse by something that understood its actions clearly.

The footage had scared her not because of the destruction but because even to that day a part of her had still considered Digimon to be a force for good, for the most part. Sure, she wasn't so naive s to think there weren't any bad seeds among the thousands that existed and that, sometimes, causalities happened – accidents,_ mistakes _happened. Never in her wildest dreams had she thought of the possibility that a Digimon could ever knowingly kill a _human _at least. Yet it had happened.

_Does that make me a fool…? _Juri thought as she'd worried for Rika and Takato, having recognised the evolved forms of Guilmon and Renamon briefly on the news footage. Although she didn't see much of Takato nowadays she still cared for him as a friend. Thankfully she and Rika were still very good friends and spoke regular via instant messaging and texts and the redhead had sent her word assuring her that everyone was alive. If thoroughly beaten and demoralised.

How long would they stay all right though…? The Shinjuku Tamers had never faced a Digimon of that calibre before and it was clear that it was only the first of many more to come, even Juri could tell that much. If something that powerful had found a way to earth then others like it would soon follow its lead.

As Juri sat at an empty table of her father's restaurant, pouring over one of her school books, she could hear sirens in the distance and her father had left the television behind the bar on the news: another giant sphere of data had consumed Yoshiba Elementary. In that brief moment of solitude, when her father had departed the room to find whatever was responsible for the odd shrieking noise that had started not to long ago, that the lone helicopter high above covering the sphere's appearance banked away as it broke open and Juri couldn't help letting old doubts and fears creep in. _I should be out there helping… _but that left her to somehow answer the question of _how _was she supposed to help?

Leomon was gone, after all.

Sighing, she looked down at her notebook, although she'd long since come to terms with the loss of her Digimon Partner it still was something that haunted her. Life had taught her better than to dwell on the _maybes_ or _what ifs_ but it didn't stop her mind from wondering, because right then Juri found herself wondering just how things might have been different if she'd been a better Tamer. Rika would get angry with her of course, if she was there to know what she was thinking but it was the first time in a long time that it wasn't sadness or regret that Juri felt over the loss of her Partner but rage.

"Juri," her father now stood over her a strange looking object that looked to be caught somewhere between wristwatch and a touch phone. "This was the thing making the noise earlier, it was coming from your room. From the bottom draw of your desk." Juri could only blink dumbly as she took the thing offered to her, there wasn't really anything in the bottom draw of her desk except for small tokens from her brief time as a Tamer. Even then the only thing remotely technological was the D-Arc which had long been silent.

Her thoughts were caught short however when the front door to her father's restaurant blew in off its hinges and glass rained down as smoked coiled around the splintered and shattered door frame. The new device her father had given her gave a short beep and a shadow suddenly appeared amidst the smoke: squat and tattered looking a figure eventually stepped over the threshold, dusting themselves off. If Juri didn't know better she'd assumed this was some sort of robbery by a short and desperate homeless man dressed in rags but even five years later there a was a feeling of recognition. Point purple hat and cloak, khaki and carmine coloured robes with brown boots and a short staff the former Tamer new this creature to be a Wizardmon, Rika having shown her the card when she was teaching her the Digimon Card Game.

"Please forgive the destruction of your door, the handle was a little too high for me to reach" the Wizardmon spoke politely and eerily calmly given the circumstances, "I would offer to repay you but I don't own any human money, I'm afraid."

"Wizardmon...?" Juri spoke so as to confirm her suspicions as she stood up, placing herself between the raggedy Digimon and her father: for who's safety she wasn't quiet sure.

"Indeed! You are correct."

"Why are you _here_?"

"I'd think that would be obvious considering you already have that," Wizardmon said, pointing towards the thing Juri still clutched in one hand. Looking down at it she tilted the screen up just in time to see it flash with the Digimon Tamer symbol and she felt her eyes grow wide as her heart stopped. "Juri Katō, I am to be, from this moment hence forth, your new Digimon Partner."

The world went black.


	12. Sweating Bullets

_**Degrees of Succession**_

* * *

><p><strong>XII<strong>

* * *

><p><em>Feeling paranoid<em>  
><em>True enemy or false friend?<em>  
><em>Anxiety's attacking me, and<em>  
><em>My air is getting thin<em>  
><em>I'm in trouble for the things<em>  
><em>I haven't got to yet<em>  
><em>I'm chomping at the bit and my<em>  
><em>Palms are getting wet, sweating bullets<em>

_Sweating Bullets_ - Mega Death

* * *

><p><strong>July Nineteenth<strong>

* * *

><p><strong>Takato Matsuki<strong>

Takato's rattled mind took a few moments to realise that besides a sudden rush of hot air flying overhead nothing had actually happened since he screwed his eyes shut. Cracking one eye open nervously the young Tamer saw Guilmon standing protectively over him with feral eyes and teeth bared in a low snarl whilst UlTechPinochimon had taken a step back to glance down at the smoke rising from his chest plate which had been hit by a Pyro Sphere. If anything the Mega-level general seemed more annoyed about being dirtied than being hurt by the attack.

Sighing, UlTechPinochimon shook his head before turning away, muttering to himself; "Such a waste."

It was clear as day that Takato and Guilmon were no threat to him. Instead the mechanical marionette turned on his heel and waved one hand carelessly: summoning forth a pair drones from what little remained of the mist. These drones looked much more akin to the classic Pinochimon but made of the same dark steel as the new version, there heavy steps chewing up the already beaten road as they stomped their way over to Takato and Guilmon.

They both stopped at the sound of the sirens which wailed in the distance growing closer, even their master seemed to be distracted for a brief second. That second was all it took for rapier made from a thorny stem of a rose to separate the first drones head from its body before it imploded, taking its comrade with it in the blast.

"Rosemon, it's been too long." UlTechPinochimon said tauntingly as he turned to face the new arrival with a mocking a curtsy. A slender woman as tall as Dukemon would be, dressed in red and black with a helm of rose petals and a billowing white cloak stood protectively over both Takato and Guilmon, guarding them from the second drone who looked to its master for commands. _Rosemon… _Takato thought with awe as he saw what must have been Mimi and Palmon's Biomerged form raised her rapier and aimed it at their enemy, the light of the sun catching tifaret holding her cloak together.

"Not long enough," Rosemon hissed jabbing the rapier in UlTechPinochimon's direction. "Leave the boy out of this. This fight is between us."

"All of you freeze…! Right now, on the ground!" _Not now… _Takato thought horrified as a small cluster of police cars had arrived on the scene. The officers had all taken cover behind their cars, weapons drawn and aimed, with shaking hands at the two Megas. UlTechPinochimon didn't seem to care for the sudden arrival of human law enforcement and instead glanced over his shoulder at them, looking back to Rosemon as his mechanical jaws seemed to twist into a savage grin. "I said on the ground!"

"Piedmon did say _no_ prisoners," The general said as he turned again, swinging his hard light hammer upwards and firing a blast of energy from it which rocketed down the already shattered street, sending rubble back into the air as a giant trench was left in the attacks wake. The police officers had no time to react before the cannonball sized blast of energy crashed into the closest patrol car– reducing it to a flaming wreck which flew over head into the building behind it, setting it ablaze as the policeman scattered to the wind in fear.

"Don't run now that we've only just begun to play!" UlTechPinochimon said jeeringly, snapping his fingers before more drones burst from bellow the street and went chasing after the terrified officers whilst their master just laughed. Takato heard himself audibly gulp as the sound of shrieking voices reached them from streets over.

"You _bastard_…!" Rosemon cussed Lucemon's general as she lunged forward, hoping to catch the other Mega unawares. UlTechPinochimon simply turned out of the stab and instead brought a clenched fist down at the overextended attacker, crashing into the top of Rosemon's head with a sick _crack_ that left Rosemon face down in the rubble amidst the rubble at the feet of a cackling enemy who took his hammer and swung it like a golf club. Another unsettling _crack_ split the air as the shorter Mega rocketed down the street and crashed into the rubble by Takato.

"Your first fight in five years and you think you're on my level?" UlTechPinochimon laughed as he hoisted up his hammer, letting it rest on his shoulder as he strolled towards the downed Rosemon with a jovial skip in his step. All the while Takato and Guilmon, completely forgotten by the others could only stare on in shocked horror as Rosemon struggled to pull herself up onto all fours before the towering frame of their enemy caught her in his shadow.

"I might not be on your level but that won't stop me from fighting!" Rosemon retorted weakly as pulled herself upright, glaring up from her position on her knees at the evil Digimon.

"You Tamers really need to learn to just give up. But still," UlTechPinochimon hissed as he bent down and grabbed the Biomerged Mega by the throat and hoisted her into the air, legs flailing helplessly beneath her, "if you're that desperate to play with me I might as well indulge you. Just try not to break too quickly. I want to enjoy this."

With another gleeful, mechanical chuckle UlTechPinochimon tossed Rosemon into the air then swung his hammer like a bat. Like a batter stepping up the plate Lucemon's right hand Digimon sent the already beaten and bloody Mega crashing down the street before chasing after her.

"I might not be able to chop you into firewood any more but I can still reduce you to scrap," Rosemon declared as she struggled to stand, only to be backhanded by a smack from her enemy as she finally stood up. Takato watched Rosemon stumble before she lunged forward again – this time into a feint as when her enemy made to take a lazy swing she ducked under the blow before stabbing upwards. UlTechPinochimon seemed shocked that he'd fallen for such a cheap feint and tried to back step the attack but the tip of the rapier caught his chest before a whip of thrones swung in from out of view and caught him around the neck. "Bow."

Yanking with all her might Rosemon managed to stagger her enemy, who dropped to one knee as his hard light hammer fell out of his grasp. In the same moment Rosemon pulled her rapier back as it glowed an eerie dark blue before she thrust the tip into the centre of UlTechPinochimon's chest before a storm of black rose petals, all charged with electricity burst from the tip and rushed the Demon General, exploding on contact as they shocked the mechanical marionette before throwing him into the air.

"You would do well to not take me lightly," Rosemon sneered before panting heavily as the smoking UlTechPinochimon rose up from the dirt – the colour of his interior flickering as it slowly faded to a dark, furious red colour.

"I'll make you suffer for this," the general hissed as he held up his right hand, his hammer flying into his grasp as he rounded on Rosemon – voicing deepening with anger. "Play things which do not behave will be harshly punished."

Takato had decided this was his moment to remind everyone of his presence as Growlmon, whose evolution had gone unnoticed by either side charged past Mimi and Palmon's Mega-level form and swung the charged blade on his right elbow up into the chin of UlTechPinochimon and launching him back into the air before slamming him back down to earth with his tail.

"Good hustle, Growlmon!" Takato cheered as his Partner tried to keep up the assault as he tried to incinerate the puppet with a breath of fire.

"Why must they always struggle," UlTechPinochimon hissed as he returned to his feet amidst the chaos and delivered a sharp uppercut to Growlmon's jaw that threw him back towards his Tamer. _Maybe I spoke to soon, _the goggle wearing Tamer though as despite all the hits the puppet had just taken he looked no worse for wear accept for the fact he was now covered in dirt.

_What do we have to do to beat these guys? _Takato thought as Growlmon lumbered back to his feet and made to charge down the puppet once more, only to have Rosemon stop him.

"This isn't a fight you should be weighing into, Takato." Rosemon said over her shoulder. "You and Growlmon need to get out of here and find out where those other Digimon that came through are going and stop them from erecting another one of those spires."

"No _stay_," UlTechPinochimon hissed as bright red chain of light burst out of the ground a few feet from Takato before diving him. It was a mad scramble to avoid being impaled by the chains, but the attack had fulfilled its intended purpose. Rosemon had turned to try and help him alongside Growlmon only for more chains to spring up from the ground and bury themselves in the Mega's back.

The bastardised fairy tale only laughed on seeing his plan had worked – Rosemon swinging her sword upright at a flick of his finger, catching Growlmon off-guard and hitting him with a blow strong enough to stagger him before the follow up had him flying down the street, reverting back into Guilmon. Takato could only rush to his battered Partner's side, dropping to his knees as UlTechPinochimon advanced on him like Jason Voorhees.

"Tell me," the puppet gave a low growl of triumph as he bent down so his face was only inches from Takato's. The events of the previous day had been terrifying, but this was something else. Takato could make out every contour of the puppet Digimon's face as his eyes slowly faded back to a light orange.

"Tell me," He repeated in a hiss as Takato scrambled back a step, "how do you think precious little Mimi will react when I release her mind only for her to find your butchered corpse lying at her feet? I can only imagine what her descent into madness will look like as she realises I made her gut you like a little pig. The hysterical sobbing that will ensue!"

The puppet crowed victoriously as he once again caught Takato in his loaming shadow: "The look of anguish and self loathing as she comes to terms with how she killed you without batting an eye," he practically shuddered with glee at the thought, "and as she cries over your mangled body I'll take my hammer and smash her pretty little skull in. It'll be a beautiful sight to behold. A truly _glorious_ play date, don't you think?" Takato could only look upwards at those mad, glowing orange eyes, unable to move or speak as his mind slowly came to accept the fact he was about to die.

UlTechPinochimon half turned away, flicking one wrist and wagging a few fingers as chains jingled and Rosemon, who hadn't moved during the entire monologue suddenly advanced. There was no hint of recognition or resistance as she raised her rapier to strike, no signs of a struggle to break free from the mad machines control.

"_Pinochimon…_!" Takato's head snapped upwards, as did everyone else's another voice came from up above before a silver bullet crashed into the mechanical monstrosity.

UlTechPinochimon cried out in shock meanwhile, blasted back across the upturned street. Takato was again cast into shadow, but the figure which now stood over him was towering individual adorned in glimmering silver-white and midnight blue plate armour, helm full obscuring the new arrivals face. Scrolls of parchment and seals with golden engravings dotted the armour with the loincloth inscribed with the language of the ancient Digital World. What really caught Takato's eye though was the ten wings of burning gold fire that flickered and crackled in the mid-afternoon sun and a large crown-like halo that hovered above the Digimon's head.

"Seraphimon..." Takato murmured as he stared up a Digimon he knew rather well, he own a Seraphimon Digimon Card and it had long ago be his favourite even if it looked a little different than the angelic presences before him.

Meanwhile, UlTechPinochimon hoisted himself upright, brandishing his gigantic hammer as Seraphimon knelt to one knee. "Takeru…!" the puppet hissed and Takato was taken aback out how genuinely angry Lucemon's general now seemed. "You should not have interfered…" the angelic Digimon replied by placing his hand on the pavement, a circle of pale gold light appearing underfoot as the hilt of a weapon emerged from the ground.

Grabbing the hilt of the weapon, the angel rose back to both feet as it lifted the massive great sword and pointed toward the Circle member as the blade burst into white hot holy fire. _Excalibur. _"Release Rosemon you bastardised fairy tale," Seraphimon demeaned, ignoring UlTechPinochimon's words completely as he gestured back to once again motionless Rosemon.

"_Make_ me," UlTechPinochimon said barely above a whisper before the tension was cut as Seraphinmon looked over his shoulder at the boy behind him.

"Takato," Seraphimon said breaking Takato out of his stupor. "Get up and go find the Digimon Pinochimon brought with him! Stop them from erecting that second spire at all costs – whatever the Demon Lords are planning those things are the key. I'll free Rosemon and together we'll deal with this Terminator reject." Takato could only look to his Partner, Guilmon would be in no state to fight any time soon after a hit like that but what choice did he have? Shakily he stood up and nodded.

"Got it coach…!" He had to find Rika. There was no way Rika hadn't be altered to UlTechPinochimon's arrival and if he could locate her then maybe the pair of them together could deal with this spire thing before it could become an issue.

There was just one slightly flaw in his plan, he realised as he and Guilmon both hobbled away from the warzone that had once been his elementary school. Where the hell was he supposed to even start looking at a time like this? Did he even have time? None of that mattered though as he rounded another corner to find the street was empty but for one other person: a boy round about Takato's own age, dressed in a hoodie and jeans stared him down.

"Takato Matsuki, my name's Daisuke and I think it's about time you and I have a long over due talk."

* * *

><p><strong>Rika Makino<strong>

It was no secret that where Digimon went, chaos was likely to follow in their wake. Even after the events of the day before however, chaos like what lay before her was something Rika wasn't entirely prepared for. She and Renamon had made the dash from Sora's apartment in the direction of the latest arrival, although they hadn't even made it half way there when, before they could dash across the street, a loud tearing noise had cut the air.

What follow was the screeching of a bus horn and squeal of rubber on road as the copper haired Tamer skidded to a halt just in time to see a bus at the t-section further down the road crash into a towering figure of chains and fire. The front end of the bus had buckled and melted around the towering SkullMeramon as its back wheels had lifted from the ground as shrieking screams cut through the ringing of shattering glass.

The public transport blossomed into flame as the rear came toppling back to earth, metal buckling as the middle of the bus gave in and both ends of the bus bounced into the air once more before it toppled sideways as other oncoming vehicles served and screamed to a halt to avoid impact.

"What just happened…?" Rika asked, unsure of who would answer as SkullMeramon turned away from the downed bus and set his sights on Tamer and Partner.

"That SkullMeramon just… _appeared_." Renamon hissed as she threw one paw out in front of Rika, gently forcing her to take a step back as she stepped in between her Tamer and the Wild One. "The successful Biomergance of two highly powerful Mega-level Digimon in such a short span of time is clearly having a negative effect on the barriers separating the Digital World from the human one. In the end SkullMeramon didn't even Biomerge, at least not in the same way we understand it."

"We don't have time to deal with small fries like this," Rika hissed as she clenched her fists at her side, a slight hint of panic creeping into her voice though as the thought of Takato facing whatever had come through alone – whether she'd forgiven his past transgressions didn't matter because right now they were all each other had in this fight. Before she could full take control of the situation though, the sound of sirens and screams sounded off as the flaming bus crackled and hissed and sudden stench invaded her senses and the redhead found herself struggling not to be violently ill as she dropped to one knee, gagging as burning flesh punctuated the air.

"Rika!" Renamon cried in shock as she looked over her shoulder for a brief moment – which was all it took for SkullMeramon to backhand across the street and stand tall over the human girl who clutched her stomach, sweating profusely as heat rolled off the chained form of the Ultimate-level Digimon. "Stay away from her!" the kitsune barked in order as she scrambled to her feet and dashed back across the street.

As fast as the fox was, it wasn't fast enough to stop SkullMeramon bending down and grabbing Rika around the throat and hoisting her upright. If she could have screamed in pain or panic as she hung their limply, Rika most certainly would have but it was all she could do at that moment to breath as it felt like her insides were beginning to cook and her skin crack and dry as all the moisture in her body evaporated.

"_Please_…" SkullMeramon rasped as his entire form suddenly began to glitch and crack as his voice rumbled like muffled static, "Please, you have to save the rest. You're the only ones who can. The carnage has begun. It's too late for me but the Digital–"

Even with a light head and blurred vision, Rika managed to see what happened next as Renamon wrapped her paws around her waist and yanked her back. A creature crashed down atop of SkillMeramon, who shattered in a cloud of flickering, red corrupted data as the attacker left a crater in their wake. Standing up, the assailant revealed itself to be a bird-like create with red and white fur with several noticeable feathers, metallic breast plate and cat-like ears protruding from beneath a helm and visor.

"Silphymon," Renamon hissed as she cradled Rika's spluttering body against her soft fur. The truth was that all Rika saw was a massive blur of red and white, her throat still burning as sweat soaked her clothes and her entire body shook with a force as her teeth started to chatter, suddenly freezing as the cool air assaulted her skin.

The Beast Man Digimon folded his arms over his chest, smirking for a brief moment as he looked down on his prey with obvious glee. Silently he sided stepped just as Rika began to regain some semblance of vision to see a girl had arrived on the scene. _This must be his Tamer… _the redhead thought as Renamon carefully pulled her to her shaky feet.

"Rika Makino – how very disappointing." The girl who now stood over said in a snide, condescending tone as she looked down on Rika as though she was dirt. She was probably a good few inches taller than the grounded girl, slimmer and more lean with well trained muscle in comparison to Rika's own awkward curves with sharp, dark purple eyes, ivory skin and dark waist length dark hair that fell over her shoulder and twisting into ringlets near the ends. Dressed in a strapless white, frilled edge summer dress-top and frayed shorts of her own with dress sandals and a large sun hat with a bow tied around it. No of that mattered though, given all Rika had eyes for was the D-arc peaking out from under the frilled ends of her dress-top, clipped to the waist band of her shorts.

"Just who the hell are you?" Rika asked throatily, voice cracking slightly as her neck still burnt white hot in pain and pulsed a nasty red colour, the top of her large hoodie burnt and ruined, smoke still rising off the cotton. Wincing, she tried to stand, Renamon quickly offering her support.

"My name is Inoue. Miyako Inoue of the Olympians," the girl introduced herself with a a polite bow that was probably meant to be more of a mocking gesture than anything else. Straightening up, she looked over her shoulder for the briefest moments, making eye contact with Silphymon who nodded in reply. "And I'm here to make sure you stay out of our business with the Targeting Spire. Challenge me and I'll be forced to _dispose _of you. Dumb fox and all."

* * *

><p><strong>Hirokazu Shioda<strong>

When the bell had wrung earlier to signal the start of home-room Kazu had not be surprised to see that only maybe two thirds of the class had actually shown up for school. He'd honestly considered ditching himself, seeing as Miss Asaji would've probably though his parents had decided to make him stay home as she seemed to think that was the case all that days absentees. Instead he'd foolishly gone into class in hopes that Takato _might_ show up.

No such luck.

The morning had dragged one and Kazu was more than grateful when the lunch period finally rolled around. He left the classroom, lunch in hand and head for the roof as he and Takato would usually do one nice days like the one outside but the truth was the young man just wanted to be left alone to try and sort out his thoughts.

The previous evening had been a strange ordeal to say the least; what from his talk with Takato to the long story his cousin had told them about the truth behind Digimon. _To think I thought it was the coolest thing every at first when I found out my childhood heroes were real… _truth being told now he wasn't even sure he could ever watch the show again after everything he had heard the night before. It was harder than he could have imagined, Kazu mused as he let his head fall back slightly to rest against the cool surface of the stone wall behind him, disregarding everything he'd thought of as fact for so many years, to find out he'd known almost nothing of reality.

It was hard enough, trying to live in his brother's shadow at home but now he had to live with the fact his heroes were real and he'd never measure up to them – to Takato and Rika who seemed to _destined _for something even greater than the first generation Tamers. He wouldn't deny that a part of him had held out hope that he might be one of the Tamers included in the prophecy (whatever it was) that the older Tamers had talked about. It would have been his chance to prove for once and all to his father– to _himself_– the he was actually worth something.

When he'd gotten home late last night to his worried mother and furious father it became clear so after when he was banished to his room, grounded because of his skipping curfew again, when he ripped open the old shoebox he hid under his bed which had his old Digivice that whatever this prophecy was he was not a part of it.

Even now, despite the rumble of his stomach, Kazu didn't eat as he instead stared at the old and faded D-Arc in his hand. It was as dead as the day Guardromon had left him five years ago. It was beyond frustrating. Just once–_just once_ – he had thought maybe he might have a chance to prove himself worthy of holding the title Tamer, to stand up and show the world he was his friend's equal and not his shadow.

Destiny looked to knock him back down on his ass. Again.

Kazu hated the fact he felt jealous of Takato. After all the pair of them had been through over the years he still wanted the acknowledgment of others to have their respect for his own capabilities and not because of who his friends or family were. He had Takato's respect but he hadn't earned it the way he should have: truthfully he didn't think it was enough either and it bothered him. He wanted others to look at him and see someone they could count on but the truth was he could barely get over his own jealousy to be a real best friend and support the young man who was closer to him than his own brother.

Shaking his head, Kazu weakly threw the old Digivice across the roof, skidding and skipping across the stonework before he pulled his beanie's brim down over his eyes in frustration. _I want to help so bad, but I want it to mean something… _his father was right, he really was nothing more than a glory hound.

"Haven't you and Matsuki gotten into enough trouble for getting caught sneaking up here already, Shioda?" The sultry voice of one Mirei Mikagura asked and Kazu could feel himself cease up a little. Scrambling to his feet he adjusted his hat and offered a quick bow to the girl in front of him.

"Class President," he stammered slightly as he straightened up. The young woman before him was a bombshell; soft, fair skin and short purple hair which (apparently) was completely natural with matching eyes that hide behind a pair of hexagonal lens. Her figure was stunning with curves in all the right places, something the school's standard girl's uniform of long, puffy sleeved button up blouse and black dress that accentuated her large bust drove home. The girl was quiet possible the most attractive in the entire school and Kazu had it bad for her.

"You dropped this," Mirei said with a slight small as she held out his D-Arc to him. Kazu quickly made to take it, but upon realising just how sweaty his had become in the last minute or two he tried to dry them off by quickly wiping them off the legs of his pants before taking back what was offered.

"Thanks," _Could this day get any worse? _Kazu thought realising that now he had his D-Arc back the Class President hadn't made a move to leave or instruct him to do so either. He was stuck with nothing to say. _Just don't speak and your chance of humiliating yourself might go down slightly._

"You seem a little off this morning, oddly quiet, Shioda. Is something the matter?" Mirei asked and he hoped that he wasn't just imaging the slight concern in her voice and she was asking because she cared and not because, as Class President, she felt obligated to.

"Guess I'm just a little distracted with everything that happened yesterday, is all. Feeling kind of insignificant," he said before he could stop himself. Mirei just raise an eyebrow in reply before walking past him a moment later and Kazu finally managed to let go of the breath he hadn't realised he was holding onto. At least it was a truthful response for the most part he thought as he turned around to see the Class President sit herself down next to where he had been a few moments earlier.

"I'm sure we all have days like that," Mirei said casually, pointed looking at him as if to tell him to sit himself back down. Taking the hint Kazu scrambled forward and sat himself down next to the girl he'd been crushing on since he started high school. "I also think it's okay to feel that way."

"You do?" Kazu asked, jerking around to look at Mirei and almost toppling sideways into the girl in question. He was able to catch himself by throwing a hand up to wall and another out in front of himself, landing between Mirei's outstretched legs. The Class President just smirked at him as he quickly shuffled back, muttering a soft "Sorry," as he did so.

"I _do_," Mirei confirmed, nodding, "what I think is truly important is that you don't let those feelings rule you, that you can set aside your pride and make sure your friends can rely on regardless of your own emotional state or feelings on days like those and remember that they'll come days when they do the same for you. No matter how good you get at something they'll always be someone to come along and best you; it's important that you treasure your time at the top but never lose sight of the fact they'll come a time when you need to work your way back up there eventually. No king rules forever, or so the old saying goes."

"That seemed oddly precise…" Kazu murmured and Mirei chuckled, throaty and deep and it made the hairs on the back of his neck go up.

"Truthfully, your inferiority complex when it comes to your brother isn't as a big a secret as you'd like to think."

"Takato told you, didn't he?" Kazu said, demanding as his eyes narrowed a little.

"After the debacle at the start of the year with the graffiti," Kazu went red as one of his less stellar moment was brought up, by the girl he'd secretly been trying to impress, of all people, "I confronted Matsuki and did my best to coax an answer out of him. You're much smarter than you pretend Shioda and yet you insist on getting yourself into needless trouble in attempt to gain attention. I'm sure if you stopped and actually applied yourself you might get better results."

"It's too late now," Kazu whispered and Mirei sighed, shaking her head.

"It doesn't mean you have to make the damage any worse than it already is." She said, more softly and Kazu wasn't sure but it sound like she was doing her best to encourage him to better himself. "Matsuki doesn't care for your faults or sort-comings in the same way you don't seem to care for his. Don't let yourself be bogged down by your negatives and don't let anyone who doesn't respect you tell you that you're a fool, or stupid or not worthy of the time of day."

"I'd do anything for him, y'know? Takato, I mean," Kazu said quietly and Mirei nodded her approval.

"I'm sure he would say the same. You're some he can count on, Shioda and don't let anyone tell you differently." With that the Class President stood up and dusted herself off lightly before heading back towards the stairway door.

"Class President,"

"Yes, Shioda?"

"You really think Takato relies on me?"

"Yes," Mirei smiled slightly, "I'm also certain he isn't the only one. Don't let your doubt and insecurities drag you down Shioda, use them as the path to better yourself, if not for you own sake then for those that rely on you and believe you can be more than you're letting yourself be. Now, I won't report you for breaching the rules this time seeing as lunch is about to end anyway."

"Thank, Class President," Kazu said with a nod as he felt is heart lift a little and Mirei just smiled back at him before returning his nod and departing from the roof. "For everything," the former Tamer added as he looked at the old D-Arc in had one last time before the bell rang to signal the end of the lunch period.

Frowning in determination he clenched his Digivice tighter, swearing to himself that this time he wouldn't let himself be–

Before Kazu could finish the thought though he heard Mirei scream as she was thrown back through the door onto the roof and the former Tamer spun to see a large teen maybe a year or two older than himself loomed over the Class President.

"Who the hell are you?" Kazu roared as he dashed out from the cover of the shade to put himself between the strange and Mirei. In retrospect, it was a pretty stupid decision even by his normal standards: he'd been so quick to react that he failed to really that this young man was only slightly taller than him, but had enough muscle on him to make Kazu look like a stick figure in comparison. Dressed in dark jeans and a matching fur lined, sleeveless jacket he also wore a white tank with pair of blue tinted aviator sunglasses with a pair of dog tags hanging around his neck.

"Hirokazu Shioda," the older teen spoke in such a deep voice Kazu had to spend a moment wondering it was possible for someone to sound so naturally deep. _This guy knows who I am_, "You're coming with me,"

"Like hell I am, Conan," Kazu shot back, resisting the urge to snigger at his own, in his opinion, clever quip. The other guy clearly found it amusing too seeing as he laughed, shaking his head for a moment, at which point the former Tamer realised it was his refusal that was funny, not his one liner.

"I don't think you have much choice in the matter," as if to prove his point, the giant form of a giant mechanical lion crashed down on top of the roof behind the strange, crushing the stairwell exit and leaving them with nowhere to go. Adorned shinning gold and black plate and retractable wheels with sharpened claws and a wrecking ball for a tail that seemed to cause the sun to flick in and out of focus as it swished back and forth as the beast causal stalked around to stand over Mirei.

_LoaderLiomon_, Kazu recognised the Digimon as he swore under his breath, _this guy must be one of the Olympians Takato mentioned last night. _"You won't hurt the girl if I come quietly, right?"

"Of course I won't," the other teen agreed, nodding his head, "you have my word I won't hurt her. Best behave though; I can't promise my friends won't do anything should you get any ideas about doing anything funny." Kazu wanted to scream, the guy was taunting him because like or not he knew when he no choice in the matter and with one last look over his shoulder to make sure Mirei was okay, clearly terrified but okay, he turned and nodded.

Before he could agree though, a screech rang out from his D-Arc before he was cast into shadow as a form over head came crashing down onto the roof. Rusted and dented, and bulky as ever with fists raised and at the ready, Guardramon shield Kazu from view. "Halt, villain! Unhand this fair maiden at once, lest I be forced to take action against you."

All-the-while Kazu's Digivice grew hot, flashing white before the teen dropped it in panic and surprise as it's form suddenly began to shift and change. When it clattered against the stone roof, flopping onto its face. The shape was unmistakable though, his D-Arc had since reformed into the same type of model that Takato and Rika now had. "What the hell...?"

"Kazu!" Guardramon spoke, shifting so as to look over his shoulder best he could, "I have returned, as promised! Now let us engage this battle head on - together!" Kazu blinked, nodding dumbly when the large mechanical robot Digimon gave him a thumbs up. _Time to throw down, _he thought as he scooped up the Digivice at his feet.

"Hope you're read to throw down, Conan,"

"Bring it on, Shioda. Bring it on,"


End file.
